Best VPNs for Asia

Asia can be considered a two-sided sword when it comes to internet privacy and censorship, as it’s the homeland to the most liberal countries that, impose no limitations and let you surf online without any concerns, while on the other hand there are others where you can’t even get your surf board out of the shack. Because of this, many VPN providers usually target Asia, as an important continent when it comes to setting-up their servers, giving oppressed users a slight chance of liberty. This article will therefore focus on four main Asian countries and expose their views on internet, legislations, restrictions and general censorship. Below you’ll also find a couple of VPN suggestions and hints, to help improving the right to privacy of those stuck behind the borders of those strict Asian countries.

Japan is the most liberal country on our list, one of the top spots of the world too. In fact, internet access is not restricted at all and there are no records that the government or other legal authorities monitor e-mail or any other internet activities of the 100+ million users – which is around the 79% of the population. In addition, Japanese laws are in favor of freedom of speech and press. Many VPN providers, including the less strong ones, aim at Japan as one of the first Asian representatives in the server network. Therefore you should have no problems accessing any Japanese content.

China on the other hand, is on the exact opposite end of the scale, regarding the position on internet access. It is indeed one of the countries where online censorship is extreme. There are around 60 different regulations only regarding the internet, which led Reporters Without Borders to state, that China is “the biggest prison for netizens” – something that is still valid. Since pretty much everything is censored or completely inaccessible in China (including some Wikipedia pages that don’t comply with the “acceptable” standards), many users tried to turn to VPNs, to circumvent and access the content they were after. However, some of their attempts are still being stopped by the Great Firewall – the main online censorship tool of the country that detects VPNs, making the ISP terminate the connection. Although it is more difficult to find one, there are some VPN providers who can actually guarantee Chinese users to circumvent the Great Firewall and offer quality servers in the country.

Singapore can be considered as a country in the balance since it is not as liberal as Japan, but also not as closed as China. Internet censorship in Singapore is carried by MDA – Media Development Authority – that forces the three main ISPs to act in accordance with its regulations. MDA has a list of “targets” of around 100 websites including the ones providing obscene content (adult websites) and those which incite foreign gambling – as this is punishable by fines, or even jail penalties for users that bet on overseas gambling websites from Singapore IP addresses. Fortunately, if you want to play virtual poker on a U.S. site without the fear of being stricken, note that many VPNs offer their services for Singaporean users and usually place a couple of servers in the territory too.

Obviously, North Korea has to be mentioned here, as one of the most delicate countries today. What can we say about North Korea that you don’t know already? Perhaps that the country’s general censorship is the most extreme in the world and internet is obviously not an exception. In fact, the general population only has access to the country’s own internet (or intranet in this case since it is a closed service) which is even further filtered by the Korea Computer Center. Only some computers in Universities and even less high-level officials are allowed to access the global internet. Since North Korea is known as an “internet enemy”, you should expect some trouble when searching for VPNs with servers available in the country.

An Asian IP address can be a great advantage for a number of reasons. For those who like online gaming, for instance, this can have a greater importance as even the least experienced gamers know Asia’s importance and contribution to the gaming industry, delivering numerous titles and one of the biggest online communities to play with. In addition to online games, Asia is also important for anime and manga fans, as the variety and availability of this type of content – particularly in Japan but in other Asian lands as well – is beyond imagination. However, these are only two of the best examples why an Asian IP address can be useful for those who appreciate content that is often only available over there, or for Asian travelers around the world to feel a bit closer to their home.

If the aforementioned list of online censorship in certain Asian countries is not enough to make you consider trying a VPN in order to unblock content, we’ll be more than happy to give you a couple more reasons. VPNs will keep you invisible to government and other authorities’ radars, as your traffic cannot be accessed by them (except maybe for some cases where you can’t circumvent the Great Firewall of China) and they grant you full anonymity. In addition, by making use of a VPN with a decent amount of worldwide servers, you can access some of the world’s most neat content, which is also often blocked outside its borders. The U.S. version of Netflix for instance, which’s library is by far the most complete and desired in the world, can become easily accessible to those living in any Asian country, despite how repressive it is. BBC iPlayer or Eurosport Player can also be unlocked and accessed by our Asian fellows, enabling them to enjoy the best British and European TV shows or sports coverage, including the most important soccer leagues in the world, where many players that now act in China or Japan came from.

IPVanish is one of the most solid choices out there, as the services provided by the company are nothing but remarkable, something that made this specific provider, our reviewers’ and users’ preferred VPN service. IPVanish offers a wide range of devices and operating systems support. Furthermore it proved to be one of the best VPN networks you can imagine, with servers in such important places as India, Japan, and Singapore, among many others. You can obtain IPVanish for only $6.49 per month for a full year, meaning that you get a 46% discount regarding single monthly payments, besides a nice 7-day money back guarantee.

As the name indicates, if you’re looking for a stable provider that can offer you the best deals, useful tools to unblock whatever content you want while you are protected and a server network capable of making envy to other providers, give PureVPN try. PureVPN counts 500 servers in 141 countries, and since today we’re looking at Asian countries, note that the company provides multiples accessible servers in China, Singapore and Japan, as well as others, such as India, Malaysia, Qatar, Thailand, etc. But the best news is yet to come, as you can save up to 43% and obtain PureVPN for only $5.75 per month. Just like the previous contender, you’ll enjoy a 7-day money back guarantee.

Solely the name of HideMyAss could easily be a censorship target. Let’s use the short version “HMA”, so it flies under the radars more easily as this is one of the world’s greatest VPN companies that also present you one of the biggest server networks. With 940+ VPN servers in over 190 countries, something that translates into around 120,000 different IP addresses, there is pretty much no excuse you can find to not give HMA a try. Asian countries on the list of servers include China, Japan, Singapore and even North Korea, which is by itself a great surprise, besides the tons of other options. Pricing for HMA starts at $6.55 per month.