If you find short, pithy podcasts to be a useful resource, I recommend http://www.99percentinvisible.org for top notch storytelling that includes topics related to East Asian cities.
For example, "Duplitecture" discusses the Eutopean-looking towns outside Shanghai.
https://99percentinvisible.org/?s=shanghai&post_type%5B%5D=episode&paged=
The site covers topics related to culture all over the world, but the site can be searched for specific countries like Japan.
Other examples include:
--Kowloon's walled city
--"Red for stop" -- traffic lights in Japan
--"Return of the Yokai" -- mascots in Japan
--Life and Death in Singapore
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