author

 
Menu
Search
 
November 22, 2024
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

Meta

Michael Richardson
COMMENTARY
Mar 22, 2012
China's military buildup breeds distrust
Since China announced another big rise in its military spending earlier this month, Chinese officials in Beijing and diplomats posted in Asia-Pacific countries have been trying to spread an orchestrated message to the region: Don't be alarmed.
COMMENTARY
Mar 15, 2012
Ocean acidification: another problem with CO₂ emissions
We tend to measure time by the span of a human life, making a century seem like an era and a millennium a mega-stretch of time. In this perspective, a million years is an eternity. So it can be revealing to consider our place in geologic history measured in hundreds of millions of years.
COMMENTARY
Mar 8, 2012
Resources fuel tensions in South China Sea
For much of 2010 and 2011, tensions over conflicting claims to disputed islands, maritime territory and energy resources rippled through the South China Sea, embroiling several Southeast Asian states and China in disputes that also involved the interests of outside powers, including Japan and the United...
COMMENTARY
Feb 29, 2012
Iran outcome critical for Asia
Can the United States and the European Union apply sanctions on Iran to curb its nuclear program without boosting oil prices and undermining economies in Asia as well as the West? The answer is particularly critical for Asia because it is has to bear the brunt of the looming sanctions.
COMMENTARY
Feb 22, 2012
Amazing GRACE can measure world's ice loss
One of the main climate change concerns for Japan and other Asian countries with valuable and densely-populated low-lying coastal land is how much of their land may be threatened by rising sea levels and storm surges as the century advances.
COMMENTARY
Feb 8, 2012
China faces rising risks as it looks overseas for resources
China's meteoric rise to become the world's second biggest economy and a global manufacturing center is sustained by ever-growing imports of raw materials and increasing investment abroad, often in under-developed countries shunned by the West for alleged human rights abuses or because they are considered...
COMMENTARY
Feb 2, 2012
Eventually not a drop of groundwater to drink?
The world is in the midst of a boom in groundwater use. The rate of extraction from aquifers more than doubled in the 40 years to 2000. It has continued to soar since then.
COMMENTARY
Jan 26, 2012
Asian quest for energy security
East Asia's three top industrial powers, all heavily dependent on imports of Middle East oil, have moved quickly to try to secure their supplies as the West tightens sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program.
COMMENTARY
Jan 5, 2012
U.S. turns to drones to counter China
A recent offer by the Seychelles to refuel and replenish Chinese naval ships on anti-piracy patrols in the northwest Indian Ocean was seen as the latest sign of China's expanding naval power.
COMMENTARY
Jan 4, 2012
Can China sate its thirst for energy?
Among the sinews of superpower strength in the 21st century, maximum energy self-sufficiency will be critical as nations jostle to secure supplies of oil and natural gas, as well as food, water and minerals.
COMMENTARY
Dec 15, 2011
Sunny days ahead for the solar power industry
The solar power industry in Asia and other key growth markets is struggling in a competitive bloodbath. Companies are producing far more solar cells and panels than they can sell.
COMMENTARY
Nov 24, 2011
U.S. lays out its Asia-Pacific plans
The United States has set out more clearly than before how it plans to shape Asia-Pacific security and prosperity in the 21st century. The key question that countries in the region must now decide is the extent to which U.S. terms for long-term engagement with the world's fastest-growing economic zone...
COMMENTARY
Nov 16, 2011
Methane time bomb is ticking
Scientific research shows that the need for resolute action to curb global warming from fossil fuel burning is become increasingly urgent. Yet policymakers in Japan and many other countries find it more difficult to take the necessary measures because they are costly and unpopular with many voters.
COMMENTARY
Oct 22, 2011
TPP key to America's future economic success in Asia
The United States has engaged Asia for most of the time since the end of World War II with unquestioned economic strength as well as unrivaled military power. That has been changing in recent years, as China and other emerging Asian economies rise and their military clout increases.
COMMENTARY
Oct 14, 2011
The volatile politics of rice
A campaign promise that helped bring Thailand's Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and her political party to power in July elections is roiling the global market for rice, Asia's staple food that is now eaten by nearly half the world's population.
COMMENTARY
Oct 7, 2011
Nuclear power's face looking rested
The catastrophic accident at Japan's Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant earlier this year undermined confidence in, and support for, nuclear power around the world. The plant north of Tokyo on the Pacific coast was hit by a series of explosions, fires and serious radiation leaks after a massive earthquake...
COMMENTARY
Sep 30, 2011
The challenge of managing a flammable Earth
To what extent will our future on Earth be shaped by fire? As the world gets hotter, the risk of more and bigger fires increases.
COMMENTARY
Sep 14, 2011
China plays hardball with Russia on energy deals
China's President Hu Jintao has a reserved demeanor. So it is hard to imagine him as a poker player. But in energy politics with neighboring Russia, he certainly is.
COMMENTARY
Sep 8, 2011
China turns up the heat
As Chinese President Hu Jintao greeted his Philippine counterpart Benigno Aquino in Beijing recently at the start of a state visit, the official Xinhua news agency laid out terms for a sustained improvement in relations between the world's second biggest economy and its much smaller and weaker Southeast...
COMMENTARY
Sep 1, 2011
Beijing wastes no time with Noda
China lost no time warning Yoshihiko Noda what it expected of him, after he was chosen by the ruling Democratic Party of Japan as its leader this week and subsequently was elected prime minister.
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Russia fired experimental ballistic missile at Ukraine, Putin says
Ukrainian firefighters work on a spot following an airstrike in Dnipro on Thursday.
Ishiba aggravates his own political failures with diplomatic faux pas
Prime Minster Shigeru Ishiba is greeted at the APEC summit in Lima by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday. The Japanese leader was criticized for remaining seated while meeting several world leaders at the event.
Japan's 3.31 million visitors in October set monthly record
Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in December 2023. Famous autumn leaf colors contributed to increased tourism demand last month from many markets across Asia, Europe and North America, the Japan National Tourism Organization has said.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
The slow-burn success of ‘A Samurai in Time’
A 19th-century warrior gets struck by lightning and wakes to find himself in 21st-century Kyoto in Junichi Yasuda’s surprise hit “A Samurai in Time.”
Around a quarter of Japan married couples in their 20s met through dating apps
A survey released by an organization promoting “Good Couples Day” shows that 24% of couples in their 20s met their marriage partner through a dating app.
'Tokyo Swindlers': Get deep into the minds of real estate con artists
In Ko Shinjo's "Tokyo Swindlers," a group of con artists manipulates real estate giants into falsified deals within the highly competitive, quick market.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?
By Kathryn Wortley

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

SWCC keeps changing with keyword ‘new challenges’
SWCC keeps changing with keyword ‘new challenges’

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER