Nikkei Asia's weekly cover article is known in the newsroom as "The Big Story." It is the part of the magazine where our writers have the opportunity to research and write, sometimes for months, about a newsworthy topic -- but one that may not be in the headlines on the week it runs. The result is sometimes newsy, sometimes feature-y, hopefully both, and all pieces aim to tell our readers something they didn't know about Asia in the present day.
Here, in the first week of 2022, we have brought together a selection of Nikkei Asia's best Big Stories from 2021. The topics run the gamut from Chinese semiconductors to health care workers in Indonesia to hunger in Afghanistan, to the lives of couriers during the pandemic. Among these picks are some of our most-read cover stories, but we have also included a handful of our less popular but just as deserving pieces -- those that cast light on themes that have not received much attention, and justify more.
