Welcome to Your Week in Asia.
Japanese lawmakers vote on a prime minister after the ruling coalition took a thumping at last month’s polls, U.N. climate talks kick off in Azerbaijan and China’s Xi Jinping heads to South America for official visits in Peru and Brazil.
Shanghai and Tokyo play host to AI summits, Sri Lanka is set to hold parliament elections while Malaysia reports fresh GDP figures at the end of the week.
Advertisement
Get the best of our coverage of Asia and much more by following us on X, @NikkeiAsia.
MONDAY
Japan leadership vote
Lawmakers cast ballots to select Japan’s prime minister after the ruling coalition lost its majority in last month’s lower house election. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is seen to be chosen as the 103rd Prime Minister of Japan.
U.N. climate talks
Azerbaijan hosts the COP29 conference in a year marked by extreme weather aggravated by climate change. How much money wealthy nations agree to send to developing countries to help them cope is expected to be central to the talks in Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital.
China’s Singles’ Day
China’s largest annual online shopping carnival wraps up Monday. In recent years, the popularity of the Singles’ Day shopping festival has gradually waned, even as it begins earlier and lasts longer due to intensified competition and more cautious consumer spending amid an economic downturn.
TUESDAY
China air show
China is expected to show off a new stealth fighter jet at the China International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition, also known as the Zhuhai Airshow. The J-35 is seen as the next step in enhancing the People’s Liberation Army’s carrier-based firepower. The show will also feature Russia’s most advanced fighter, the Su-57, although one of the planes displayed at the site was mocked online over apparently poor build quality.
Baidu World 2024
Chinese tech giant Baidu kicks off its annual flagship event, Baidu World 2024, in Shanghai. The event will feature Baidu’s latest advancements in artificial intelligence and the company’s co-founder Robin Li will deliver a keynote speech delving into the company’s innovation and the future of AI applications.
Nvidia AI Summit
Nvidia hosts a two-day AI summit in Tokyo featuring over 50 talks, live demos and workshops covering generative artificial intelligence, remote sensing and more. A key session to watch is a 90-minute chat Wednesday about the future of AI between Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son.
Earnings: Tokyo Electron, Sea, Grab, SoftBank Group
WEDNESDAY
Xi in South America
Chinese leader Xi Jinping flies to South America on official state visits, first traveling to Peru with plans to attend an APEC economic leaders’ meeting. He then heads to Brazil for meetings with political leaders and to join a G20 Summit.
Earnings: Singtel
THURSDAY
Sri Lanka elections
Sri Lanka holds parliament polls with newly elected President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s National People’s Power vying to win control of the house. If the leftist party pulls off a majority it would complete a change of guard from an elite that has presided over the island nation’s politics for decades.
Japan’s megabanks report
Japanese megabanks — MUFG, SMFG and Mizuho — post their April-September financial results, giving investors a chance to assess their business performance following the Bank of Japan’s interest rate hikes in March and July. Investors see the banks as major beneficiaries of rising interest rates, a trend expected to continue as incoming U.S. President Donald Trump calls for inflation policy programs such as tax cuts and import tariffs.
Earnings: Hero MotoCorp
FRIDAY
China data
China releases a range of economic indicators, including retail sales and industrial production, providing a picture of conditions as the country braces for dealing with incoming U.S. leader Trump.
Japan’s economic picture
Japan announces GDP figures for the July-September period. The economy is estimated to have grown by an annualized 0.6% from the previous quarter, but at a slower pace than the second quarter’s 2.9% expansion, according to an consensus in a QUICK survey.
CSIS/Nikkei security symposium
Nikkei and the U.S.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) host the 21st CSIS/Nikkei Symposium in Tokyo under the title of “Shaping the Future: New Leadership in Japan, U.S. and Next Indo-Pacific Order.” The Mount Fuji Dialogue, a gathering that unites influential government officials and businesspeople from the U.S. and Japan, is scheduled to start on Saturday in Tokyo.
GDP: Malaysia
