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April 30, 2024
 

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OUR PLANET EARTH

ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Oct 23, 2011
Only the Japanese public's will can raze that lethal 'village'
"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 The Japan Times on May 23, 2004.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Sep 25, 2011
Now is the time for a 'brand Japan' that creates and inspires
On Sept. 19, just as this column hit deadline, news outlets reported that a massive demonstration was taking place in Tokyo, rallying tens of thousands of people against nuclear power.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Aug 28, 2011
Is youth's 'creeping passivity' happening by design?
Last February, I wrote an Our Planet Earth column titled "Don't give up on Japan's kids," noting there that despite all the hand-wringing that goes on about this nation's young people, my own experience with university students gives me cause for considerable optimism.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jul 24, 2011
What chance a 'free market' would cure all the world's ills?
An old friend is a successful investment banker who makes more money in a year than I will make in my lifetime. Like many people, though, he would like to make even more.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jun 26, 2011
Readers offer 3/11 insights, valuable resources
As Japan has struggled with the physical and emotional challenges of the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake and tsunami of March 11, and the ongoing nuclear crisis that resulted, I have written three Our Planet Earth columns related to those events: one on Japan's response (March 27); one on alternative energy options (April 24); and one based on an interview with Tom Twomey (May 22), an American lawyer who faced off against nuclear power interests in the United States, and won.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
May 22, 2011
U.S. court victories show how to get rid of nuclear plants
Lawyer Tom Twomey knows far more than most of us about the importance of citizen participation in making energy policy. That's because Twomey has spent four decades keeping a watchful eye on electric power suppliers in New York — and he's learned that what we don't know can hurt us.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Apr 24, 2011
After March 11, Japan must reconsider its energy options
Viewed from abroad, there is no doubt that Japan is suffering an unmitigated disaster.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Mar 27, 2011
Spare us shoganai as we face an ominous spring
For two weeks now, ever since death and destruction swept northeastern Japan, all of us here have been trying to get our heads around this catastrophe.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Feb 27, 2011
Don't give up on Japan's kids
Last March, the president of Harvard University, Drew Gilpin Faust, visited Japan to find out for herself what has become of Japan's once-vibrant contribution to American academia. The numbers of Japanese students enrolling in Harvard have declined steadily over the past decade, and in September 2009 that renowned university's first-year intake included just one student from Japan.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jan 23, 2011
Forests worldwide: a primer
For those living in Japan, it's easy to forget that forests are not a given.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Dec 26, 2010
Your money or your life: Where happiness lies
Year-end holidays always elevate hopes for happiness, but with expectations set high it is not surprising that they often seem to bring depression and loneliness instead.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Nov 28, 2010
Veering off the path of mutually assured destruction
As individuals, we usually recognize when we're heading off in the wrong direction and then have the good sense to get ourselves back on the right track.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Oct 24, 2010
Saving biological diversity: a challenge for survival
Eight years ago in Johannesburg, government delegates from around the world gathered for the World Summit on Sustainable Development — and made a promise "to substantially reduce the rate of loss of biodiversity."
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Sep 26, 2010
Asia is surely gaining an unquenchable thirst
G. Kallupatti is a small village in the Theni District of western Tamil Nadu, tucked up against the rocky foothills of the Western Ghats in southern India.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Aug 22, 2010
Of forests and floods
Last week I enjoyed the sublime luxury of watching a sunrise from the middle of a lake in Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island, Maine.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jul 25, 2010
Wherefore art thou, corporate social responsibility?
As an American lawyer, I know a bit about working in a profession that has had serious image problems.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jun 27, 2010
BP oil disaster is one more chance to learn badly needed lesson
More than two months ago, BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded in a ball of fire, killing 11 workers and leaving a crippled wellhead that continues to bleed millions of liters of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Apr 25, 2010
Will arrogance and ignorance doom our biosphere?
This year, 2010, is the United Nations' International Year of Biodiversity — which is a very good thing. But why this critically important global concern gets just one year is seriously worth debating.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Mar 28, 2010
Sea change: Can science, sense turn the tide?
In "The Tempest," William Shakespeare writes of a human body deep beneath the waves undergoing "a sea-change into something rich and strange," transmuting into coral and pearls.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Feb 28, 2010
Is the Atsugi tragedy finally drawing to a close?
During the 18 years I have been writing this column, few stories have haunted me as much as that about the Japanese-owned incinerator that, for more than a decade, fumigated the U.S. Naval Air Facility at Atsugi in the Kanagawa Prefecture cities of Yamato and Ayase.
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.
JAL cancels international flight after captain gets drunk at Dallas hotel
A Japan Airlines' flight from Dallas to Tokyo was canceled last week after its captain got drunk at a local hotel.
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

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Leading Japan’s sustainability from Tokyo
Leading Japan’s sustainability from Tokyo

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