Michael Richardson - The Japan Times

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Michael Richardson

For Michael Richardson's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

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 States.

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 too dangerous.

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 fit with their own interests.

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 and the monster tsunami waves it generated cut outside power to the plant, causing reactor fuel rods to heat up dangerously.

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 Asian neighbor.

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.

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.

[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

When trying to trace your lineage in Japan, the "koseki" is the most important form of document you'll encounter.

Climbing the branches of a Japanese family tree

By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Leading Japan’s sustainability from Tokyo

Leading Japan’s sustainability from Tokyo

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