Stephen Hesse is an educator and writer living in Tokyo. He graduated from Vermont Law School, where he received a JD and an LLM, and is now a professor in the Law Faculty of Chuo University, Tokyo, as well as Associate Director of the Chuo International Center.
For Stephen Hesse's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
With the gruesome beheadings of journalists in the Middle East, an ugly truth is now common knowledge — being a reporter can be deadly. In 2014, there were 69 journalists killed under circumstances in which it was "clearly established that the victim was killed because ...
Another year has dawned, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been at the helm for more than two years and nearly four years have passed since the Fukushima disaster brought Japan to its knees. And still we wait for a realistic blueprint from the government ...
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party won a snap election two weeks ago that caught opposition parties and the public off guard. The result was a record low turnout in which the LDP lost several seats, but kept a two-thirds majority in the ...
No doubt you are relieved to hear that climate change is no longer a concern. At least that's the consensus of powerful Republicans who will lead the newly elected majority soon to take control of both houses of the U.S. Congress. This doesn't mean climate ...
"Biodiversity provides the foundation on which all life depends, including human societies," writes Nik Sekhran in the opening pages of "Biodiversity for Sustainable Development," a captivating book released earlier this month by the United Nations Development Programme. "Ecosystems and biodiversity provide our food, water, fuel, ...
Incredible India! is the Indian government's marketing slogan to attract tourism. And I agree. India is truly incredible in countless ways, both captivating and heartbreaking. Ten days ago I returned from my annual study tour with university students to India and my mind continues to ...
What are the costs of the meat we eat — the hamburgers, pork chops and chicken breasts? Not the price we pay for ground beef and so on, but the full costs of meats: the environmental and societal impacts, from birth to burger, and beyond. ...
In mid-June, The New York Times reported that U.S. President Barack Obama intends to use his executive authority to create the world's largest marine protected area in the south-central Pacific. For scientists and ecologists who have some inkling of the mysteries and complex interactions of ...
After creeping slowly northward for weeks, the rainy season finally hit Tokyo earlier this month. And rain it has. For days on end the rain can fall, heavy and steady, saturating Tokyo. There's not much we can do except wait out the downpours, but the ...
Young researchers today are in a pickle. Most of them have assumed that peer-reviewed science is fundamentally accepted until new, equally legitimate research proves those findings wrong. However, that was before politicians became self-declared experts on everything under the sun, from science to religion. Take ...
