Japan said it would allow short-term business travelers and foreign laborers to enter the country, responding to calls from companies that said they feared falling behind the West, the Wall Street Journal reported. The decision followed a sharp fall in new infections in Japan, which is reporting only a few hundred new Covid-19 cases a day. More than 70% of the population is fully vaccinated. The loosening up puts Japan closer to the rules in the U.S.

Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission sees no broader systemic risk from the troubles at China Evergrande Group after keeping a close eye on the exposure of brokers and banks, its chief executive officer said, Bloomberg News reported. The financial watchdog has conducted frequent stress tests on its regulated financial institutions to assess their risks and balance sheet exposures “way before Evergrande,” Ashley Alder told reporters on Friday. “We have looked very very carefully at the institutional level, in particular exposures and expectations, in Hong Kong,” he said.

Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd. plans to sell property assets valued at almost $13 billion to raise capital after the cash-strapped Chinese developer flagged liquidity stress and missed payments on investment products, Bloomberg News reported. The company has put 18 projects covering 1.45 million square meters (15.6 million square feet) in Shenzhen up for sale, with a total value estimated at 81.82 billion yuan ($12.8 billion), according to people familiar with a briefing by Kaisa’s executives to retail investors on Thursday.

Australia's banking watchdog said it was examining the regulatory implications of Commonwealth Bank's (CBA)'s planned introduction of bitcoin trading to unsophisticated retail investors - the first bank in Australia to do so, Reuters reported. CBA says that it would welcome a clear regulatory framework for crytpocurrencies, which are not formally regulated in Australia.

Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd.’s bonds and shares tumbled after a wealth-management product guaranteed by the company missed a payment deadline, Bloomberg News reported. China’s dollar high-yield debt fell for the 10th day in 11 after yields climbed above 21%. Trading was halted in two yuan bonds from other real estate firms after they plunged more than 20%. Spiking borrowing costs are making it all but impossible for developers to refinance debt, while property market curbs are weighing on home sales.

For more than a year, residents living in a remote border town have been China’s foot soldiers in the battle against the coronavirus, enduring lockdown after lockdown to shield the rest of the country from contagion, the Wall Street Journal reported. Mothers in Ruili, a jewelry-trading center on China’s border with Myanmar, post despairingly about their toddlers being numb to regular swab tests—one said her 2-year-old has gotten 100 in his lifetime. Others post about spending months on end in isolation, despite test after test coming back negative.

India has cut the taxes paid by consumers on petrol and diesel after the surging cost of crude oil pushed fuel prices to record highs, BBC.com reported. The decision aims to ease price rises and "further spur the overall economic cycle", the government said. Global commodity prices have soared this year as economies around the world recover from the pandemic. However, the move is also expected to boost demand for fuel as countries try to curb fossil fuel consumption. India's excise duty on petrol has been reduced by 5 rupees (£0.049; $0.0671) per litre, and by 10 rupees on diesel.

Property developers in China looking to raise badly needed cash by selling assets are finding it hard to strike deals as potential buyers in the sector hoard funds after home sales plunged and Beijing stepped up its borrowing crackdown, Bloomberg News reported. China Evergrande Group last month ended discussions to sell a controlling stake in its property-management business that would have raised about $2.6 billion. A plan to unload a trophy office tower in Hong Kong also stumbled, while Modern Land China Co.

Traders have had a mixed view for most of this year about when emerging-Asia central banks will begin to normalize policy. Suddenly though, they are rushing to price in rate-hike bets across the region, Bloomberg News reported. The hawkish shift is most evident in South Korea and India, where markets are now anticipating at least a quarter-point increase in the next three months, while they are also building in Malaysia and Thailand over a two-year horizon.

Japanese policymakers on Tuesday reaffirmed the Bank of Japan's (BOJ) commitment to its 2% inflation target in a meeting held between the central bank chief and the country's economy and finance ministers, Reuters reported. The Japanese government and the central bank also agreed to keep in close contact and cooperation, in line with commitments made in a 2013 joint statement, which also laid out the country's inflation target for the first time.