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April 30, 2024
 

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Michael Richardson
For Michael Richardson's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
COMMENTARY
Feb 9, 2011
Aquaculture booms but will wild fish recover?
SINGAPORE — Even as global food prices hit record levels, rising in January for the seventh month in a row amid concerns about future shortages, fish farming is a bright spot in the generally challenging outlook for food production. This is why Japan and many other Asian countries are so interested in aquaculture.
COMMENTARY
Feb 3, 2011
Food crisis threatens Asia
SINGAPORE — Is Asia on the edge of another food supply crisis that will stoke inflation, protection and political unrest?
COMMENTARY
Jan 20, 2011
The price of climate change?
SINGAPORE — Generations of Australians have learned that their island-continent is a land of alternating droughts and floods. Recent prolonged rain and devastating flooding across eastern Australia, particularly in the state of Queensland, underscore this heartbreaking cycle.
COMMENTARY
Jan 13, 2011
China's military challenge
SINGAPORE — Will China's development of new weapons counter the dominance of U.S. forces in the Asia-Pacific region — in space, at sea and, most recently, in the air?
COMMENTARY
Jan 5, 2011
China targeting U.S. deterrence
SINGAPORE — In 1996, China fired ballistic missiles and held military exercises in waters close to Taiwan to warn the electorate not to vote for a pro-independence candidate in presidential elections. In response, the United States sent two aircraft carriers and their warship escorts to the area. It was a display of American naval might and striking power that Beijing could not counter.
COMMENTARY
Dec 29, 2010
Carbon dioxide is threatening our fisheries
SINGAPORE — Since the industrial revolution began over two centuries ago, the oceans have absorbed an estimated 500 billion tons of carbon dioxide. This is about a quarter of the total amount spewed into the atmosphere as the burning of coal, oil and natural gas gathered pace and agriculture replaced forests.
COMMENTARY
Dec 27, 2010
What is Beijing willing to do to secure oil and gas supplies?
SINGAPORE — China's dependence on increasing amounts of oil imported from potentially unstable areas of the Middle East and Africa through vulnerable shipping channels has become an uncomfortable fact of life for the government in Beijing.
COMMENTARY
Dec 21, 2010
Merits of a Singapore-Australian exchange
SINGAPORE — Australian regulators and politicians must decide soon whether the proposed $8 billion takeover of the main stock market operator, ASX Ltd., by the Singapore Exchange is in the national interest.
COMMENTARY
Dec 5, 2010
Troubling birth of a nuclear plant
SINGAPORE — When U.S. nuclear scientist Siegfried Hecker was taken to a new uranium- enrichment facility in North Korea's nuclear complex at Yongbyon last month, he was stunned by what he saw.
COMMENTARY
Nov 24, 2010
TPP zone will test commitment to free trade
SINGAPORE — China is outpacing the United States and Japan as Asia's top trading partner. Can Washington and Tokyo make up lost ground in the competition for economic influence that is shaping future geopolitical alignments and institutional architecture in the region?
COMMENTARY
Nov 18, 2010
China's big stick: trade reprisals
China's ascent as a trading power and its push for control of disputed islands and seas in East Asia are confronting the region with a new challenge: how to cope with Chinese moves that make recognition of its sovereignty claims a condition for access to its huge market and strategic resources.
COMMENTARY
Nov 12, 2010
Solar energy boom in the American desert
SINGAPORE — In the remote deserts of the United States, a clean energy boom is under way with potentially far-reaching implications for the way future electricity is generated in the sunbelts of Asia and other regions.
COMMENTARY
Oct 31, 2010
China on path to clean energy leadership
SINGAPORE — China is rapidly becoming a global colossus in renewable energy as it seeks to reduce reliance on polluting fossil fuels and establish itself as a leading clean power manufacturer and exporter.
COMMENTARY
Oct 26, 2010
Asia needs to make wiser use of its water
SINGAPORE — Photographed from satellites in space, Asia and the other great continents are a spectacular sight. One of the most unique features of the panoramic view is water, in both liquid and frozen forms, which covers about 75 percent of Earth's surface.
COMMENTARY
Oct 18, 2010
Cirrus cloud-gazers may learn a thing or two about Earth's fate
SINGAPORE — What will happen if global production and consumption remain largely unconstrained by controls to minimize the impact on the Earth's complex climate system?
COMMENTARY
Sep 30, 2010
What China has joined together
SINGAPORE — China takes pride in the way science and technology have been used to modernize its armed forces.
COMMENTARY
Sep 23, 2010
Their own private seabeds
SINGAPORE — A bitter sea dispute between China and Japan, Asia's two biggest economies, is intensifying after the decision of a Japanese court Sunday to extend detention of a Chinese fishing boat captain until Sept. 29.
COMMENTARY
Sep 9, 2010
China corners vital market
In the race to build advanced industrial and military products, China has a key advantage: the world's biggest reserves of rare earth minerals that are essential to many of these products.
COMMENTARY
Aug 26, 2010
Will intimidation win China the Yellow Sea?
SINGAPORE — The United States and South Korea announced last week that they would hold the next phase of their joint naval exercises early in September in the Yellow Sea, despite repeated objections from China.
COMMENTARY
Aug 19, 2010
Another 'pearl' in Beijing's string of ports
A newly constructed harbor at Hambantota, near Sri Lanka's southern tip, began filling with water recently in readiness for the first ships in November. The port — which will have a water depth of 17 meters, making it one of the deepest in South Asia — has been carved out of coastal land in a joint venture between the Chinese and Sri Lankan governments.
When will Japan intervene to support the yen?
Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki has reiterated the government's readiness to take an appropriate action as the yen continues to slide against the U.S. dollar.
'So hot you can't breathe': Extreme heat hits the Philippines
A pedestrian cools himself with a folding hand fan as he waits for a ride along a road in Manila on Wednesday, as extreme heat hit the Philippines.
Raising kids in Japan as a single parent? It takes a village.
Making things work as a foreign, single mother in Japan isn't easy, but these tips and tricks can help you through the hardest parts.
Yen rebounds strongly after first slide past ¥160 since 1990
The yen dropped to ¥160.245 per dollar on Monday before heading into the other direction to ¥155.01 amid speculation of an intervention by Japanese currency authorities.
Man, 28, arrested in Okinawa over burned bodies found in Tochigi
Hikaru Sasaki enters the Metropolitan Police Department's Osaki police station in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward on Monday after being arrested on suspicion of disposing of two bodies found in Nasu, Tochigi Prefecture, earlier this month.
Climate change, chalky grains and the risks for Japan’s rice farmers
A farmer plants seedlings in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture. Japan’s self sufficiency rate for rice is nearly 100%, compared with 38% for food overall, on a calorie basis.
Japan wants you to spend more with ‘luxury tourism’
Performers play a traditional drum unique to Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, in the prefectural capital of Kanazawa on March 16 to mark the extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen line to Tsuruga Station in Fukui Prefecture.
Theaster Gates’ ambitious ‘Afro-Mingei’ brings Black Chicago to Tokyo
Theaster Gates' “A Heavenly Chord” lines up church pews before seven speakers and a Hammond B3 organ, a type of electric organ prevalent in Black American churches.
Casa del Cibo: A thriving jewel born from Tohoku’s harsh past
When chef Ryohei Ikemi moved to Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, and opened Casa del Cibo in 2011, it was the first proper Italian restaurant in the city.
Town to block view of Mount Fuji in response to overtourism
The town government of Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, decided to set up a 2.5-meter-high screen to prevent tourists from taking pictures of Mount Fuji looming behind a convenience store.

Podcast

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

Longform

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

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