author

 
Menu
Search
 
July 27, 2024
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

Meta

David Fickling
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 7, 2022
China can have cheap coal or common prosperity. Not both.
Operating 24 hours a day, the only way coal mines can increase output in a hurry is to skimp on maintenance, making for a dangerous situation.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 26, 2021
A gas pipeline won’t turn Russia and China into buddies
The Power of Siberia 2 pipeline is presented as something akin to a marriage proposal between Russian and China, bringing two leading authoritarian states closer together.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 15, 2021
Forget the words of this COP26 deal. Follow the money.
The costs of subsidizing fossil fuels go up with each passing year, making it harder to abandon them even as their damage accumulates.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 27, 2021
Why 25 previous conferences have failed to stop climate change
Climate talks are at a disadvantage from the start as their intent is stunningly broad: remaking the energy systems that have powered the planet since the Industrial Revolution.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 18, 2021
China’s power crisis will affect industries worldwide
The world has become hooked on cheap Chinese power for making a host of its goods. About half of all metal is produced in China and nearly a fifth of all oil is refined there.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 8, 2021
Pandora Papers show the rich will always find a way
For all the revelations about the shadow global financial system for the wealthy since the ICIJ's first revelations in 2013, it's striking how little has changed.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 19, 2021
Starvation is as much a threat to Afghan women as the Taliban
In an aid-dependent economy already in deep trouble, the removal of tens of thousands female workers, many supporting large families, will only add to those facing hunger.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 2, 2021
COVID-19 vaccines may become a viable business. That’s a problem.
Inoculations have been distributed to almost every person on the planet. But, traditionally, they been unprofitable for the pharmaceutical industry.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 23, 2021
What 16th-century Venice teaches us about crypto
If Bitcoin and its ilk are to survive, they will need to find a way to betray their libertarian roots and cut their own deals with the state.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 2, 2021
Indonesia can’t afford the luxury of Australia’s carbon habit
A business based on mining, hauling and burning heavy rocks to spit out electrons struggles to survive everywhere that fuel-free renewables manage to take root.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 9, 2021
Climate targets must 'be realistic and demand the impossible'
About a third of all human greenhouse emissions in history have happened since 1997, when world leaders adopted the Kyoto Protocol with an ambition of limiting such pollution.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 26, 2021
The pandemic will be more deadly this year — particularly for India
The more people infected in emerging countries, the more opportunities COVID-19 will have to develop into fresh strains and prolong this death and misery.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 21, 2021
Florida toxic waste crisis could be key to China rare earths fight
Concerns about China's control over rare earths are probably overblown given how abundant they are.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 7, 2021
COVID-19 isn’t over, and the next wave may be worse
While we're increasingly talking about the coronavirus in the past tense, the worst may still be ahead of us. Infections worldwide rose 47% during March from a lull in late February.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 21, 2021
Gas won’t save a nation that can’t fill up its tank
Despite its world-beating exports of coal and liquefied natural gas, Australia is seriously short of oil.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 20, 2021
Turning the tide on two centuries of emissions
Climate and energy plans presented in China's 14th Five Year Plan this month represent the most important policies in determining the fate of the planet.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 7, 2021
China’s weaponization of rare earths is bound to backfire
There was a time when China could cause the world to tremble by threatening its supply of rare earths. It's long in the past.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 23, 2020
We’re never going to mine the asteroid belt
One factor rules out most space mining at the outset: gravity. It guarantees that most of the solar system's best mineral resources are to be found under our feet on Earth.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 25, 2020
Beyond Meat takes on tough rival in China: tofu
Beyond Meat Inc., the U.S. maker of plant-based burgers and sausages, announced a new product designed to crack China, the world's biggest meat market: imitation ground pork.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 28, 2020
Zero hour is coming for emissions. Believe it.
Any targets laid out by politicians will find themselves up against institutional inertia, unintended consequences and political pushback.
Japan's population continues to fall even as foreign resident count rises
The number of residents in Tokyo as of Jan. 1 rose by 0.03% from a year before, data shows, marking a year-on-year increase for the first time in three years, while the country's other 46 prefectures saw their populations continue to decline.
Japan’s minimum wage set for record ¥50 hike in major boost
Demonstrators rally to demand a big hike in minimum wages in Tokyo last week.
One dead, three missing as heavy rain batters Tohoku
Camera footage shows the Mogami River bursting its banks in Tozawa, Yamagata Prefecture, on Friday morning.
Yen melt-up nudges Japanese stocks into correction territory
Japanese stocks are down 10% from their July peak as the yen strengthens.
Yen rally could help end crushing wage decay in Japan
Some economists say a sticky weak yen trend would have a negative impact on Japan's real wage growth.
When did summer in Japan stop being fun?
Summer in Japan is now consistently brutal enough to drive you indoors and keep you there until autumn.
Japan’s minimum wage set for record ¥50 hike in major boost
Demonstrators rally to demand a big hike in minimum wages in Tokyo last week.
Japan loses top spot on strongest passport list to Singapore
Japan had the strongest passport for six years running from 2018, before being dethroned by Singapore on the 2024 list.
Why Japan's mysterious stash of classified funds escapes scrutiny
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi (right) during a meeting in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Japan eyes gold — and the future — as Olympic men's soccer campaign begins
Japan midfielder Yu Hirakawa controls the ball during a match against the United States in Kansas City, Kansas, on June 11.

Podcast

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

Longform

Traditional folk rituals like Mizudome-no-mai (dance to stop the rain) provide a sense of agency to a population that feels largely powerless in the face of the climate crisis.
As climate extremes intensify, Japan embraces ancient weather rituals
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

JNTO promotes sustainable tourism initiatives
JNTO promotes sustainable tourism initiatives

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER