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November 25, 2024
 

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Michael Richardson
COMMENTARY
Mar 21, 2009
Are Earth's oceanic 'carbon sinks' filling up?
Russian and South Korean scientists made a disturbing discovery recently in the Sea of Japan. They found that the amount of carbon dioxide, the main global warming gas, being absorbed in the water dropped by half between 1992 and 2007.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 15, 2009
Maritime lines of conflict in South China Sea
SINGAPORE — America's protest last week to China over the alleged harassment of two of its navy ships by Chinese vessels, and China's reaffirmation of ownership of the contested Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, highlight two festering maritime disputes. Either position could lead to conflict...
COMMENTARY
Mar 10, 2009
Warming up for the bottom line on climate
SINGAPORE — Researchers from around the world meet in Denmark this week to discuss the latest scientific findings on climate change, following recent warnings that the severity of global warming this century will be much worse than previously expected and that changes to the climate will be difficult...
COMMENTARY
Mar 3, 2009
Tackling the dangers of mercury
SINGAPORE — Fear sparked by global recession, strains on banks and volatile paper currencies has brought the glitter back to gold. Its value has been rising rapidly in recent months, as investors seek a safe haven from the economic and financial storm.
COMMENTARY
Feb 25, 2009
Building an Asian safety net
Asian finance ministers have agreed to build a regional safety net to help countries withstand currency weakness and avoid a financial meltdown. However, they appear to be making haste slowly when the deepening global recession demands decisive action.
COMMENTARY
Feb 17, 2009
Former saviors racking up losses
SINGAPORE — A year ago, before the financial crisis started to bite hard, the United States and Europe were worried that Asian and Middle East nations, armed with a mighty war chest of surplus foreign exchange reserves from their exports of manufactured goods and oil, would gobble up so-called strategic...
COMMENTARY
Feb 4, 2009
Guantanamo closure raises key issues for U.S.
The Obama administration has moved swiftly to end controversial practices that tarnished America's international reputation and undermined its moral authority. But in doing so, it has raised new questions about how the United States will prosecute and punish terrorists in future, and where and under...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 27, 2009
North Korean crisis heating up
SINGAPORE — Will North Korea be the Obama administration's first Asian crisis? Pyongyang has recently been cranking up its bellicose rhetoric, declaring that it would maintain its "status as a nuclear weapons state" and "smash" South Korea's government in an "all-out confrontation" for tying aid to...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 9, 2009
Who can win on oil slicks?
SINGAPORE — What a roller-coaster ride! It took more than four years for oil to go from $35 per barrel in 2004 to just above $147 in July 2008, and less than six months to go all the way down again. Today, the oil price is two-thirds lower than its peak last year, despite Israeli military strikes in...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 31, 2008
China flexes naval muscle
SINGAPORE — Two Chinese destroyers and a supply ship are on their way to join other foreign warships on anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden and waters off Somalia. This is a milestone for a navy that has long focused on coastal defense and lacked the capability to project power overseas.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 30, 2008
Making nice in Asia during a global slump
SINGAPORE — Global financial dislocation and the economic slump are putting Asian regional cooperation to the test. They also appear to be shaping somewhat different responses in Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia. The latter, which formed the Association of Southeast Asian Nations way back in 1967,...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 18, 2008
Modest signs of progress in Poznan
SINGAPORE — The world remains on a path toward a new treaty to limit greenhouse-gas emissions, blamed by some scientists for warming the planet to potentially dangerous levels. But clinching a comprehensive deal designed to control climate change has been made increasingly difficult as both developed...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 8, 2008
Preserving tropical forests also cuts emissions
SINGAPORE — Can the world's remaining tropical forests in Indonesia and elsewhere be protected and brought into the battle against climate change? Working out ways of halting or slowing the cutting of forests for valuable timber and agriculture is now being discussed at U.N. climate change negotiations...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 25, 2008
Room for Asian influence in G20 structure
SINGAPORE — Finance ministers and central bank governors from the Group of 20 advanced and emerging economies have been meeting regularly for nearly a decade. But the decision to convene a summit of the G20 heads of government in Washington the weekend of Nov. 15 marked an important turning point in...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 16, 2008
Sticky details of Obama's clean-energy plan
SINGAPORE — U.S. President-elect Barack Obama is coming to power on a torrent of promises and high expectations. Yet as recession bites deeper into the world's biggest economy, investment slumps, jobs are lost, tax revenues fall, and the U.S. budget deficit grows ever larger. It is expected to more...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 11, 2008
Protectionist sentiment to challenge Obama
SINGAPORE — Asian economies that have benefited from trade liberalization in recent years tend to prefer U.S. Republican administrations over Democratic ones because the former are seen as having a more consistent commitment to free trade. Now that Barack Obama is president-elect with a sizable Democratic...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 1, 2008
Rich in geothermal fields? Then exploit them
SINGAPORE — In their quest for energy security, Indonesia and the Philippines are planning to develop nuclear power to buttress a key part of their electricity generating systems. This provides the near constant, or base load, electricity needed by industries and households. However, the possibility...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 27, 2008
Sri Lanka sees LTTE at the end of the tunnel
SINGAPORE — Sri Lanka's government says its armed forces are in the final stage of a campaign to annihilate the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the rebel group that has been fighting for 25 years to carve out a homeland for minority Tamils in the north and east of the island-state.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 11, 2008
Combating the piracy plague
SINGAPORE — The confrontation between foreign warships and well-armed pirates off the coast of lawless Somalia is a dramatic reminder to Asia of the importance of safeguarding busy channels used by international shipping.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 6, 2008
Tinge of green as China becomes top polluter
SINGAPORE — The latest tally of greenhouse-gas emissions blamed for warming the world shows that China has emerged as the top polluter, ahead of the United States, by an increasingly big margin.
Woman dies after train collides with car in Tochigi
A Moka Railway train car
After Shohei Ohtani bump, Iwate ironware maker sees brighter future
Kaito Kikuchi's decision to send superstar Shohei Ohtani one of his company's traditional ironware tea kettles has paid off with a surge of interest from general consumers.
Tokyo police care for lost umbrellas, keys and flying squirrels
An employee at the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Lost and Found Center in the Iidabashi area of central Tokyo bags, tags and organizes thousands of items.
Japan to aid introduction of multilingual ride-hailing apps
A Nihon Kotsu Co. taxi departs one of the company's service offices in Tokyo.
Seven & I founding family sounded out KKR and others about buyout: report
A 7-Eleven convenience store in Tokyo
Tokyo’s newest three-star chef wants ‘harmony across every detail’
British-born Daniel Calvert earned his third Michelin star last month — a stunning achievement considering his restaurant, Sezanne, has only been open for just over three years.
133-year-old Kyushu railway station remains to be partially preserved
The remains of the original Moji Station in Kitakyushu
After Shohei Ohtani bump, Iwate ironware maker sees brighter future
Kaito Kikuchi's decision to send superstar Shohei Ohtani one of his company's traditional ironware tea kettles has paid off with a surge of interest from general consumers.
Shohei Ohtani wins National League MVP award
Shohei Ohtani celebrates after hitting a three-run home run against the Padres during the National League Division Series at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles last month.
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.”

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

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Azabudai Hills, Tokyo’s green new downtown ‘village’
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