Here are a few stories from around Asia you may have missed this week.

Japan has entered the post-COVID-19 era after its mandatory face mask measures ended on March 13. The country had already eased norms on masks, allowing maskless speeches in parliament and permitting schools to decide whether to require them at commencement ceremonies in March. However, a drastic removal of masks may not be seen given a long history of mask usage in Japan and a pollen onslaught that has given hay fever sufferers one of the worst spring seasons in years.

Protests broke out in Sri Lanka and armed police were deployed as trade unions crippled hospitals, ports and banks on March 15 to protest high income taxes. The taxes are a precondition for an International Monetary Fund bailout for the country. Schools cancelled tests and outpatient departments at hospitals were closed due to the work stoppage that involved more than 40 trade unions.

Chiang Mai City in Thailand was shrouded in smog on March 12 and became the most polluted city in the world, with a PM2.5 concentration of 147.3µg/m³, which is 29.5 times the World Health Organization's annual air quality guidance value. Governor Nirat Pongsitthaworn said state agencies are deploying resources to fight forest fires, which have been raging for about a week, blanketing parts of the city with smoke.

The first batch of foreign tourists has entered South Korea on a cruise ship after three years. On March 13, in Sokcho, a cruise ship docked at the international cruise port. It was the first time since epidemic prevention authorities restricted the entry of cruise ships due to COVID-19 in February 2020 that foreign tourists have entered the country by cruise ship.

The first visit to Japan by a South Korean president in 12 years took place on March 16. The leaders of the countries agreed to restart frequent reciprocal visits, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said after a meeting with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yue. The two countries earlier agreed to drop an almost four-year trade dispute on high-tech materials. Yoon's visit to Tokyo – the first of its kind since 2011 – comes after he proposed that South Korean companies compensate plaintiffs who won court cases accusing Japanese firms of using forced labor during Japan's 1910-1945 occupation of Korea. 

(Cover: A priest removes a mask from a bronze statue of the world's largest pufferfish, Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan, March 13, 2023. /CFP)