Economy | ANALYSIS
Households to take hit from tax hike
by Tomoko Otake
The consumption tax increase will hit every household in Japan hard, with many people’s financial future hanging on whether their wages rise enough to offset the hike's impact.
Environment | OUR PLANET EARTH Sep 23, 2012
Japan's nuclear phaseout: Is it all smoke and mirrors?
by Stephen Hesse
On Sept. 14, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda’s administration announced that Japan would end nuclear-power generation by 2040. Five days later his Cabinet failed to endorse the new policy; but on the same day, Sept. 19, Trade Minister Yukio Edano insisted that the government would ...
Environment | OUR PLANET EARTH Aug 26, 2012
If we ruin the air, what will our children breathe?
by Stephen Hesse
Watching the sun set into the Pacific Ocean from a hotel tucked in among the dry scrub hills of San Diego, I have a chance to reflect on life here in Southern California, on climate changes and on what’s in store for future generations. ...
Environment | OUR PLANET EARTH Jul 22, 2012
Is Rio+20 the way the world ends — with a whimper?
by Stephen Hesse
Last month, more than 45,000 people descended on Rio de Janeiro for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development. Coming 20 years after the U.N. Conference on Environment and Development held there in 1992 (which was generally referred to as the Rio Earth Summit), ...
Environment | OUR PLANET EARTH Jun 24, 2012
There's none so blind as those who deny they cannot see
by Stephen Hesse
Buddhism teaches that all human suffering is rooted in greed, anger and ignorance. Whether true or not, it is clear that related human failings are compromising our planet: our material greed, our ignorance of natural systems, and most of all, our dogged denial. Certainly ...
Environment | OUR PLANET EARTH May 27, 2012
Japan has a role to play in environment and rights issues in Belize
by Stephen Hesse
“The United Nations’ largest-ever conference, billed as a historic opportunity to create a greener future, appears to be going up in smoke.” That was the sobering observation contained in an Associated Press story in The Japan Times of May 13 headlined “Fears of failure ...
Environment | OUR PLANET EARTH Apr 22, 2012
It takes a forest, a field and a stream to raise a child
by Stephen Hesse
In 1996, back when the present U.S. Secretary of State was the first lady, Hillary Rodham-Clinton published a book titled “It Takes a Village: And Other Lessons Children Teach Us,” which popularized an old African proverb — “It takes a village to raise a ...
Environment | OUR PLANET EARTH Mar 25, 2012
A woman of wisdom among the energy mandarins
by Stephen Hesse
Ask me who should facilitate Japan’s energy dialogue and the choice is easy: Junko Edahiro. Edahiro is a highly accomplished author, interpreter, translator, environmental journalist, policy consultant and cross-sector networker. She is also the inspiration behind several of Japan’s top environmental information networks, including ...
Environment | OUR PLANET EARTH Feb 26, 2012
Gloom, doom — and Lester Brown's 'Plan B'
by Stephen Hesse
Anyone who has read any of the 50-plus books that Lester Brown has authored or co-authored (in any of the 40-odd languages into which they’ve been translated) might easily imagine him to be another gloomy environmentalist. At least that was the kind of person ...
Environment | OUR PLANET EARTH Jan 22, 2012
Changing self and systems for a leaner and greener Japan
by Stephen Hesse
Year in, year out, it never ceases to amaze me what a difference a day makes. In an instant, December ends, January begins, and a miraculous transformation takes place. For the reverent and the riotous equally, midnight wipes the cosmic slate clean. Through some ...
Environment | OUR PLANET EARTH Dec 25, 2011
Time for Japan to realize it really is the canary in the mine
by Stephen Hesse
This Christmas Day column is a book review, but it is also a wish and a prayer. The wish is that the book might, even in some small way, contribute to the development of robust and open debate over Japan’s energy future, the options ...
Environment | OUR PLANET EARTH Nov 27, 2011
Demand change: an open letter to Japan's rising generations
by Stephen Hesse
If you’re like my 17-year-old, then you probably already know just about everything there is to know, and reading this column you’ll likely just say: “Yeah, right, whatever,” or “So?” But if you have a few minutes, younger readers especially, please bear with me. ...
Environment | OUR PLANET EARTH Oct 23, 2011
Only the Japanese public's will can raze that lethal 'village'
by Stephen Hesse
“Of all the places in all the world where no one in their right mind would build scores of nuclear power plants, Japan would be pretty near the top of the list,” wrote Leuren Moret in a “Power and the people” Timeout special in ...