Times Insider explains who we are and what we do, and offers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism happens.
On March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9 earthquake occurred off the coast of Honshu, Japan, The earthquake triggered a catastrophic chain of events: the earthquake triggered a tsunami, which in turn caused the Fukushima disaster, one of the worst nuclear disasters in history. In total, some 19,000 people died.
The day after the tsunami, Hiroko Tabuchi, then working as a business reporter for the New York Times, pleaded with her editor: “I remember crying on the phone with her and saying, ‘Please let me go to the tsunami zone,’” Tabuchi said in an interview.
Instead, her editor suggested she stay in Tokyo, sensing there might be a bigger story to cover: the radioactive fallout from the Fukushima power plant. Covering the disaster became a turning point in Tabuchi’s career. “It was my introduction to climate writing, as the disaster was so intertwined with environmental pollution and climate change,” she said.
In 2014, Tabuchi joined the Times’ climate desk, where she focused her coverage on policy. This summer, she took on a new, more complicated topic: pollution. In recent months, she has written about “forever chemicals” on American farmland and the scandal surrounding Costco’s plastic packaging.
Speaking by phone from his home in Manhattan, Tabuchi, who grew up in Kobe, Japan, talked about his accidental arrival at The Times and the challenges of deciphering climate science. Edited excerpts follow.
Have you always wanted to be a reporter?
I never wanted to be a journalist. I studied international relations at university and my dream was to work for the United Nations or UNICEF. After university, I ended up working for a Japanese government agency, the Japan External Trade Organization. It was a difficult change. I wasn't used to the traditional office culture in Japan. The stories about their work culture are true: if you're a first-year woman in an office, you serve tea to everyone.
In the end, I ended up doing some work for interpreting and translation companies. I was sent to TV stations, for example, to help interview foreign sources. I met media people at press conferences. Eventually, I was hired at The Times of London, which was my first real job in the media.
How did you end up at the New York Times?
I worked for The Associated Press, then The Wall Street Journal, and finally I was hired by The Times. I worked in the Tokyo bureau as an economics reporter. A couple of years after I joined, Fukushima happened, which became the biggest news event I covered outside of Japan.
In 2014, my editors told me I should work in New York, so I made the leap to the United States. I had never lived there before. I was hesitant because I had a competitive advantage in Japan from having grown up there, being able to write in Japanese, and knowing English. I knew nothing about the United States. I had never studied the U.S. government, so I had to learn about the judiciary and how counties differ from cities.
Your new topic is pollution. Why focus on that?
Climate is highly politicized. In many red states, climate change can be a sensitive issue, but many voters in those states still care about clean water and air. Plus, I sometimes struggle to get readers to read my articles — if we say something like “Our average temperatures will rise by this amount in 100 years,” it’s hard to get through. But pollution (like chemicals that show up in drinking water) seems much more immediate.
What are your biggest challenges when reporting?
I find the climate and environment issue to be very complicated. There is a lot of research to be done on the science. I don't want to say that economic reports would be easier, but if retail sales were down, I could write an article about how analysts thought bad weather was a factor. No one can necessarily prove that they are right or wrong. But with climate science you have to be careful, or you can get it completely wrong.
There are also a lot of politics, which are very dense. I have a hard time understanding them. You have to be precise, find the issues, and write about them in a compelling way. Bringing those elements together into a single story can be a challenge.
What is the best part of your job?
My favorite moments as a journalist are when I talk to people like a family in the Navajo Nation or a rancher in Texas. I get very excited when I meet someone I would never have met if I weren't a journalist.
You write about a lot of difficult topics. How do you relax?
I'm terrible at it. It helps that my husband isn't a journalist. If I come home and say, “Oh my God, something terrible has happened,” he says, “That sounds really bad, but what are we having for dinner?” He's only interested up to a point, which is nice. It reminds me that there are other important things in life. I'm amazed at how journalists marry other journalists and stay sane.
