https://www.scmp.com/rss/325825/feed Peter Wynn Kirby is an anthropologist, Japan expert, and environmental specialist at the University of Oxford. He writes regular opinion pieces on policy and cultural issues for a range of top newspapers and magazines. He is the author of Troubled Natures: Waste, Environment, Japan. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Perhaps Arthur Wellesley, first Duke of Wellington, would dismiss Russian President Vladimir Putin in the same way that he mocked French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte after his 1815 defeat at the Battle of Waterloo: “Why, he is only a pounder, after all”. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has exposed the Russian military as a blunt instrument – ponderous, reactive and plagued by antiquated command practices and pitiful logistics. Yet, as is by now clear, Russia’s relentless bombardment of Ukrainian... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3188879/putins-atrocity-exhibition-could-turn-ukraines-nuclear-plants?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3188879/putins-atrocity-exhibition-could-turn-ukraines-nuclear-plants?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 15 Aug 2022 19:30:25 +0000 In Japanese, karaoke literally means “empty orchestras”. Peculiar yet evocative, this name brings to mind an imagined “orchestra” providing the backup instrumentals for a performance that often takes place in a boozy bar setting, with variable skill levels and frequently dire performances. Many karaoke sets come with an echo feature to enhance the vocals, sometimes even simulated applause. As television cameras pan over Olympic venues with thousands of vacant seats looming above the sporting... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3143208/tokyo-2020-how-japan-could-have-avoided-karaoke-olympics?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3143208/tokyo-2020-how-japan-could-have-avoided-karaoke-olympics?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 02 Aug 2021 01:15:13 +0000 As the Japanese proverb goes, “Let the past drift away like water.” Yet with radiation, letting go is not so simple. Even as the Japanese government tries to rid itself of the catastrophic after-effects of the Fukushima nuclear crisis, radioactive traces stubbornly remain.  Japan announced last week its intention to release about 1.25 million tonnes of waste water collected from the bowels of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station. The water to be released into the Pacific Ocean... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3130239/fukushima-waste-water-plan-wont-win-public-confidence-no-matter-how?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3130239/fukushima-waste-water-plan-wont-win-public-confidence-no-matter-how?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 21 Apr 2021 01:15:18 +0000 Early spring is the traditional run-up to the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games, but Japan’s Olympic torch relay, scheduled for March 25, is shaping up to be unique.  The 10th anniversary of the devastating 2011 tsunami and subsequent Fukushima Daiichi radiation crisis will be commemorated on March 11, and the government has made the Olympics an explicit glorification of the country’s efforts to bounce back from the historic disaster. The Games are now also known as the “Recovery Olympics”... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3124797/covid-19-fukushima-legacy-and-other-obstacles-stand-way-japans?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3124797/covid-19-fukushima-legacy-and-other-obstacles-stand-way-japans?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 10 Mar 2021 22:45:09 +0000 At root, the Japanese government has not approached the current pandemic as an epidemiological crisis. Instead, it has sought to manage it as an economic crisis and as a perilous public relations liability for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government. This reactive, obstructionist approach is dangerous at a time when Japan needs real leadership to preserve lives. In recent months, when the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games were expected to go ahead, Japan garnered some international sympathy for... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3080065/its-coronavirus-response-japan-must-not-repeat-mistakes-its?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3080065/its-coronavirus-response-japan-must-not-repeat-mistakes-its?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 16 Apr 2020 14:00:08 +0000 There is probably no population on the planet better prepared for an infectious disease outbreak than Japan’s. While Londoners, Parisians and New Yorkers try substituting awkward elbow bumps for handshakes and struggle with unaccustomed masks, the Japanese have not only been bowing from a distance since time immemorial and wearing face masks regularly, but they also use mouthwash and hand sanitiser the moment they reach home in the wintertime and always remove footwear inside the home. The... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3075342/tokyo-insists-otherwise-its-hard-see-how-olympics-can-go-unaffected?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3075342/tokyo-insists-otherwise-its-hard-see-how-olympics-can-go-unaffected?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 16 Mar 2020 09:00:16 +0000 The cutthroat corporate practice of outsourcing toxic manufacturing work to compliant, lightly regulated nations suffered a blow last month when RCA and General Electric (GE) lost a lengthy tort case in Taiwan. RCA was one of the first US companies to embrace outsourcing in the 1960s and 1970s when it moved key operations to Mexico, and then Taiwan. Late last month, that history caught up with RCA Taiwan and parent companies GE, Thomson and Technicolor, which were ordered to pay NT$718.4 million... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2120728/how-taiwan-court-verdict-just-made-outsourcing-pollution?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2120728/how-taiwan-court-verdict-just-made-outsourcing-pollution?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 21 Nov 2017 03:50:10 +0000