101 East

The Yakuza in Japan has links that extend as far back as 400 years to Edo era. But their days of protecting the weak against the strong are long gone. Today, the Yakuza is a mighty and entrenched criminal network with nearly 80,000 members operating in 22 crime syndicates, and raking in billions of dollars a year. And Japan's law enforcement wants to wipe them out once and for all.

Mongolia is opening one of the world's biggest copper mines, the Oyu Tolgoi. But the deal with Australian mining giant Rio Tinto is highly controversial. 101 East examines if mining will change Mongolia for the better, or worse.

Some of the world's largest energy giants are moving into eastern Australia and investing billions of dollars to exploit coal seam gas reserves so vast they could rewrite the world's energy map. Despite generating massive amounts of revenue and creating thousands of new jobs, they are being met by a groundswell of public protest and a rising chorus of concern about the long-term impacts of coal seam gas extraction on the nation's health, environment and land. Coal seam gas has the potential to make Australia an energy superpower, but at what price?

The Philippines is emerging as a great outsourcing nation for cost efficiency, but are there limits to its success?

In remote parts of India, illness, poor harvest and bad luck can sometimes mean only one thing - a curse in the family. 101 East unveils a volatile world of land conflicts and abuse of power in India where women and their families fall prey to false accusations and are driven off their land.

Australia is one of the richest nations in the world. Yet there is a growing poverty gap which can be seen in suburbs like Claymore. The New South Wales government built this public housing estate in the 1970s and filled it with people from Sydney's poorest families, creating a welfare ghetto. Today, Claymore is one of the most disadvantaged suburbs in Australia with the highest proportion of young children anywhere in the country. But poverty in wealthy Australia is not limited to Claymore. According to surveys and reports, 2.2 million Australians live below the poverty line, while more than 600,000 children under 15 live in households where no one has a job. 101 East hears the heart-wrenching stories of the economically disadvantaged children from modern Australia and asks why the cycle of poverty has not been cracked in this rich nation.

Jakarta, Indonesia, is one of Asia's most flood-prone cities. Every year hundreds of thousands of citizens living in the capital of Southeast Asia's largest economy brace for the loss of business, shelter and livelihoods. Each year, as the rainy season approaches, the authorities insist they are ready to counter the tides of brown murky water, trash, and even animals, surging downstream. But the annual city-wide submergence continues.

Participants in Indonesia Mengajar, a programme funded by private corporations and run by prominent university educator Anies Baswedan, are given army survival training before being deployed. But they are not soldiers; they are educated professionals sent to remote corners of the archipelago to teach as volunteers in some of Indonesia's most impoverished schools. 101 East investigates the world's fourth largest education system and asks what can be done to improve schooling in one of the fastest-growing economies where a third of the population is school-aged.

Can the Easter Island's indigenous Rapa Nui win the battle for independence from Chile to protect their land and culture?

101 East travels to Cambodia, a country representing some of the highest levels of rape in the region to speak with men themselves about why they commit these crimes and to find out if the perpetrators can trigger new ideas for prevention.

Blasphemy charges have fatal consequences in Pakistan but a determined few are risking their lives to protect the accused and press for reform.

We explore how the demand for manta gill plates is threatening the existence of one of the most graceful marine species.

In late 2012, Australia was rocked by fresh allegations of Catholic clergy child sex abuse by whistleblower, New South Wales Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox.

Facing a raft of domestic issues, can Malaysia’s government weather a growing opposition onslaught to win the elections?

With the rising cost of living, locals are starting to struggle to keep up, so is the party set to end?

Environmentalists race to save Australia’s Great Barrier Reef as port expansions threaten its World Heritage status.

Is Australia’s moral compass being called into question as opinions change about euthanasia?

101 East takes a rare peek inside Yangon’s most famous building, as Myanmar’s colonial architecture is under threat.

Marking the first ascent of Everest, we celebrate the victories and explore the real costs of climbing this deadly peak.

Is war looming as Japan strengthens its military power and tensions escalate over disputed East China Sea islands?

Is the Japan Self-Defense Force preparing to step into the limelight and assume a more prominent military role?

Coffee drinkers love East Timor’s green beans but farming remains a life and death struggle in Asia’s poorest nation.

What will it take to end fighting between the government and insurgents in Thailand’s deep south?

Seasonal migration from Tajikistan to Russia is destroying families and leaving thousands to grow up without fathers.

As foreign troops withdraw and the Taliban return, we explore the lives of Afghanistan’s ruby miners.

Wrestling is a national sport in Mongolia, but now fighters are taking their skills abroad and dominating Japanese sumo.

Indian doctors believe they have identified a mutant strain of incurable TB, raising alarms of a new health hazard.

Despite having the passion to succeed, corruption and mismanagement have turned Indonesia into football’s failed state.

101 East returns to Myanmar to investigate the religious hatred plaguing the country.

We explore the daily battles of India’s widows as they face restrictions on inheritance, remarriage and social welfare.

Can the young girls forced to work in middle class homes across the country break the bonds of slavery?

A look at continuing discrimination and failure of justice three years after deadly ethnic clashes in south Kyrgyzstan.

Myanmar’s timber elephants and their handlers have survived wars and dictatorships, but will they survive democracy?

How can Pakistan’s authorities protect its minority Shia community?

Why does New Zealand have one of the highest rates of incarceration in the developed world?

101 East explores the impact of a lost generation of leaders in Kandahar, an Afghan city known for its lawlessness.

101 East asks if Chinese cinema is about to enter a golden age that will make it too lucrative for Hollywood to ignore.

101 East travels to Tanauan, a town in the Philippines hit by Typhoon Haiyan, whose plight has gone largely unreported.

As air pollution hits toxic levels, China counts the human cost of its rapid economic growth.

Despite government claims of peace, torture and abductions continue to be used to stifle ethnic and political dissent.

China’s youth are driving a booming trade in recreational drugs, turning neighbouring Myanmar into a meth lab.