10 Years of Amplifying Voices: A Conversation with a Journalist

Nithin Coca, Asia-Focused Journalist and Researcher

I was drawn instead to what lay beneath the surface - the society, politics, and history of the places I visited. This gradually led me towards journalism. 

— Nithin Coca, Award-winning Journalist and Researcher

In my last post Zen, Ch'an and its Taoist Origin, I wrote about the need for clarity and inner freedom in chaotic times. The rich discussions that followed illuminated three insights for me — staying open to diverse and opposing views, engaging ideas in their original language, and recognizing that true understanding of culture needs to be seen in the context of its era from historical events to political structures.

To me, the heart of inner work is compassion. Compassion for ourselves and for others. With that spirit, I hope you enjoy today’s conversation on giving voice to people in Indonesia and across Asia.

72 Seasons of Tea | Instagram | LinkedIn | About

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#11 Conversations Mostly from Kyoto

Nithin Coca

Nithin Coca is an award-winning global freelance journalist, primarily publishing in-depth features and investigations in Asia on topics not getting enough attention in the English-language media. He covers intersectional issues on climate, environmental degradation, human rights, technology, and supply chains across the region. He splits his time between California, Indonesia, and Japan.

As he celebrates his 10th year anniversary as a freelance journalist, Nithin and I sat down over tea to reflect on his work amplifying underrepresented voices. In his own words and his wish:

As a freelance journalist in Asia, I rely on editors and mainstream media to publish my work, but many aren’t interested in amplifying grassroots voices, making it a struggle to explain their importance. 

I wish English-language mainstream media, including the local ones, were more open and willing to invest in difficult reporting in sensitive places like Papua or Kashmir, where security risks are high.

These stories require more time and investment to do properly as it requires building trust and understanding people — but there’s little appetite. And now, it has gotten even worse with right wing populism around the world with greater focus on that, shifting attention away from things happening in Asia.

Our conversation covered topics closest to my heart — from elevating overlooked voices to exploring Asia through climate, culture, community, and the enduring threads of beauty and hope.

• Road to journalism: What inspired you to become a journalist? Tell me about your time in Indonesia. Which of your work has had a significant impact on you? Contrast your work in journalism vs earlier goal of working in development.

• Unheard voices: What drives you to amplify unheard voices? Tell me about your recent story featuring diverse Asian voices. How did your childhood spark the drive to amplify underrepresented voices? What are some lessons learned interacting with marginalized people?

• Climate resilience: Share more about energy transition challenges in Southeast Asia. Tell me about your article balancing climate, culture, community in Fiji — and lessons learned applicable to other contexts.

• Southeast Asia to Japan: Contrast Japan in relation to Southeast Asia and East Asia. What do you like about living in Japan? What is Green Drinks Kansai?

• Trends: Tell me about the regional trend as to where we are headed. What frustrates you as a journalist? What does beauty mean to you? What gives you hope?

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ROAD TO JOURNALISM

What inspired you to become a journalist?

© Nithin Coca

I never planned to be a journalist.

In grad school, I studied international affairs with a focus on environmental policy. My goal was to work in international development, specifically on grassroots environmental projects in a developing country. After working for a U.S. nonprofit, I decided to venture out and landed a job in Indonesia.

Writing was always a hobby for me, and I even wrote a travel memoir as a creative project. While I wrote some travel articles, I found typical travel writing too surface-level. I was drawn instead to what lay beneath the surface - the society, politics, and history of the places I visited. This gradually led me towards journalism.

Also, I realized that while writing a book was rewarding, getting people to read it was challenging. Writing for mainstream publications and magazines, however, allowed me to reach and engage a much wider audience.

Tell me about your time in Indonesia.

Indonesia is this big country in the world that America knows very little about.

After grad school in the US, I got a job in Indonesia to work for an Australian civil society organization focused on anti–human trafficking and modern slavery, while writing articles on the side. Balancing both became too demanding so I decided to try journalism full-time for six months to see how it would go.

Indonesia is the world’s fourth most populous country with 280 million people, comparable in size to the US. Yet, many Americans never realized this fact.

• Many Americans have never met any Indonesians in the U.S. With no large diaspora and little mention in mainstream media, Indonesia remains distant in their minds — its culture, its stories, even its food.

• My initial goal was to write about environmental issues, human rights, society, and politics in Indonesia, bridging the gap by raising awareness among English-speaking audiences about a country I had already lived in for over two years.

Then, I realized what I like about journalism is I get to be around people — traveling, meeting people, sitting down and talking with them, getting to learn different things.

Which of your work has had a significant impact on you?

When I first started as a journalist, I wasn’t sure what I was doing, so I decided to go somewhere I had never been before. I booked a trip to Sumatra, Indonesia, intending to report on deforestation.

But in 2015, severe forest fires disrupted all my plans. Roads were closed, smog was overwhelming, and everyone was busy handling the fires, so I couldn’t meet the people or visit the national park as planned.

In Sumatra, I met a nurse who told me the serious health issues in her village caused by the smoke, including miscarriages, noting that many people weren’t wearing masks. I ended up just like talking to many people and did five or six stories about the forest fires.

After returning to the U.S., I revisited my field recordings and interviews as forest fires gained attention and scientific coverage, turning them into several journalistic stories. This experience helped me build lasting relationships for future reporting on deforestation in Indonesia, while gaining firsthand insight into what it’s like to experience the fires and how locals, especially in cities like Pekanbaru, have come to treat them as a normal part of life.

Behavioral change is difficult in these contexts, and it’s been 10 years since those fires, showing how persistent the challenges remain. What used to be seen as a tropical issue, like forest fires, is now a global phenomenon due to climate change, affecting places like Japan, Korea, and Canada. I believe these lessons from past fires can help us understand and respond to recent events.

Contrast your work in journalism VS your earlier goal of working in development.

In development, it seems that the longer you are in it, the further you drift away from the grassroots you are trying to serve — disconnected.

Generally, development professionals aspire to reach the headquarters of Geneva or London or New York City, far removed from the ground realities. As for journalism, it doesn’t make you less of a journalist if you are in the field, choosing to be connected.

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UNHEARD VOICES

What drives you to amplify unheard voices?

I think it’s because those are the people most interesting to me as I’ve always been a minority everywhere I lived.

When I travel, I often find myself connecting with minority communities. Even in Japan, despite being seen by many as homogeneous, I’ve built relationships with Southeast Asians, Uyghurs, Tibetans, Palestinians, and Ukrainians. While in Indonesia, I gravitated toward Papuans, LGBTQ communities, Christians and Chinese Indonesians, groups outside the mainstream. I seem naturally drawn to these circles, sometimes finding it harder to relate to the majority or understand its perspective.

Beyond amplifying voices, I build connections to give context to their struggles —asking, for instance, why Papuans and Kashmiris raise similar concerns about mining in their regions, and what links these two stories.

Talk about a recent story where you got to feature diverse Asian voices.

For the Atmos publication, I reported on the world’s largest solar plant in Xinjiang from a human rights perspective, highlighting abuses often ignored in other coverage. I was able to interview four Uyghur women, something not possible a few years earlier, and spotlighted women leaders advocating for justice and the environment. The piece combined climate reporting with a clear human rights focus, reflecting the type of journalism I had long wanted to pursue.

I was able to write the story featuring diverse Asian voices, rather than relying solely on Western experts discussing issues in Asia.

Was it your childhood that sparked your drive to amplify underrepresented voices?

I did become aware of inequality early on, partly from visiting my family in India and witnessing stark poverty. I always sensed the world was bigger than my suburban upbringing, where I spent my early years in overwhelmingly white environments and felt disconnected from the people around me. In college, I made more diverse friends, which I found far more enriching.

Gradually, I was drawn to being around people who were different. When I began traveling, I sought out locals like Malaysians, Indonesians, Thais, while volunteering and engaging with them to learn about their countries.

What have you learned from interacting with people who are often marginalized?

Instead of being depressed, I actually find it empowering.

Connecting with people makes me feel part of their struggles, drawing strength from their fight against oppression despite overwhelming odds. It’s uplifting.

I gain strength and feel empowered working with these considerate and kind people, who thank me even though they are the ones doing the real work by standing up.

Playing a small role in amplifying their voices gives me far more than I give them.

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CLIMATE RESILIENCE

Share more about the energy transition challenges you see in Southeast Asia.

First, in Southeast Asia, entrenched oligarchies with deep ties to fossil fuels hold significant political sway, making it politically sensitive, sometimes even unacceptable, to challenge powerful entities linked to traditional energy interests.

The second challenge is that even if governments want to shift to renewables, significant investment is scarce. Funding from Japan, the U.S., and Europe often favors fossil fuels, bypassing clean energy, while Chinese investment mainly supports Chinese firms. This lack of alternative financing stalls local clean energy growth and weakening grassroots climate efforts.

Tell me about your article on balancing climate, culture, and community in Fiji.

This was a 2021 Devex series on climate resilience in Fiji on community-led adaptation, challenging dominant development models while showcasing grassroots leadership. The story centered on village relocation due to rising sea levels, remarkably shifting from a traditional top-down approach to one where villagers chose the site, planned, and built for sustainability.

In the piece, I highlighted solutions journalism to empower people on the frontlines, by arguing that direct funding to communities is more effective than government-led or consultant-driven projects. It’s difficult to have a one-size-fit-all solution in a place like the Pacific Islands with their unique local contexts.

Parachuting in an expert consultant to design the program could cost as much as funding the entire relocation project, which probably doesn’t make much sense.

From this Devex series, what lessons could apply to other Southeast Asian contexts?

Science can explain what's going to happen to a certain level, but traditional knowledge of the communities from seeing the changes gradually is equally important.

More can be done by listening and talking with the local communities by asking questions like: “What are you experiencing?”, “How is it impacting you?”, “How are you changing your crop patterns?”, “What's different now than it was 10 years ago?”.

Connecting with the locals by asking such questions can fill in the gaps that science is unable to grasp why certain things are happening. From here, meaningful solutions can then be developed to help the villagers.

Southeast Asia is such a diverse landscape, with each community facing its own distinct challenges — making it all the more important to listen to their voices.

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SOUTHEAST ASIA TO JAPAN

Now that you’re based in Japan, how do you see it in relation to Southeast Asia and East Asia?

I didn’t plan to be in Japan, but I find it an interesting space — slightly distant yet still close to Southeast Asia, while offering a unique vantage point on East Asia.

With Southeast Asia:

• Being in Japan offers an interesting view of its cultural and geographic closeness to Southeast Asia. Japan has a long, complex history with Southeast Asia dating back to World War II and continuing as a major postwar trading partner with strong business communities in nearly every country in Southeast Asia.

• Despite wartime atrocities and human rights violations from events that took place, many in Southeast Asia — especially younger generations — hold a positive view of Japan, shaped by decades of multifaceted relations built over 60–70 years. It’s also notable how differently Southeast Asians perceive Japan and China.

• Compared to people in Europe or the U.S., Japanese tend to be more aware of Southeast Asia, even if they haven’t traveled there.

With East Asia and the Global North:

• Japan has a shared connection with China through trade, environmental and human rights issues, and ongoing competition.

• Unlike the U.S., Japan’s distinct approach to China is less about political alliances but more about soft power through building relationships and trust.

• Living in Japan feels like being in a “middle space”. Japan is culturally connected to other Asian communities, yet part of the rich global North alongside the U.S. and Europe.

What do you like about living in Japan?

Having spent time in developing countries, I appreciate Japan’s cleanliness, easy access to clean air and fresh water, respect for nature, and affordable living — along with excellent public transit that makes regional work travel easy.

Living here gives me proximity to other parts of Asia and a good time zone for remote work. Since moving to Kansai, I’ve begun to appreciate Japan’s regional diversity and feel I’ve only scratched the surface of understanding the country.

I find the Japanese people genuinely respect the countryside and its offerings. For example, rural areas across Shikoku, Okayama, to Fukuoka Prefecture often lead with innovative initiatives, such as eco-friendly cooperatives and zero waste projects in small villages rarely seen in Tokyo.

This contrasts sharply with much of Southeast Asia, where bigger cities are assumed to be more progressive and rural areas more conservative and resistant to change — a notion that doesn’t hold true in Japan.

Also, Japan feels different. On one hand, Japan seems slightly more open, with growing numbers of migrants, students, temporary workers, and new residents each year. Even refugee admissions hit a record high last year, marking small steps toward openness while many countries close off.

On the other hand, barriers remain with limited spaces to meet like-minded people. It may be due to limited awareness or interest in global issues, or perhaps younger Japanese often are too busy with work.

Share more about Green Drinks Kansai that you lead.

Green Drinks is a global meetup for people interested in sustainability, climate, and environmental issues. I started the Kansai chapter as I didn’t find such community here. I host these monthly weeknight gatherings in Kyoto and Osaka, mostly attended by foreigners, while the Japanese participants have typically lived abroad. Probably, I will also host it on the weekends to attract more local attendees.

• The next Green Drinks Kansai is on September 17 in Osaka.

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TRENDS

Is there a trend in the region as to where we are headed?

Back in 2006, when I first traveled around Southeast Asia for journalism work, there is a general sense of optimism — that society was improving, journalism was strengthening, and progress seemed possible.

But in the recent months when I revisited Indonesia, many raised their intention to leave Indonesia, feeling that things are getting worse.

Globally, the mood feels less open and optimistic, with civil society and journalism focused on preserving existing space rather than building progress. Intercultural connections have declined as rising nationalism and stricter immigration make travel harder, especially for people from developing countries, reducing exposure to diverse perspectives.

What frustrates you as a journalist?

Last year, there was strong global media interest in covering energy and climate issues in Asia, with progress in environmental justice reporting and support for training Indigenous and minority journalists.

This year, however, priorities have shifted, especially due to political changes in the U.S., with many outlets cutting climate coverage and focusing on domestic issues, erasing much of the recent momentum.

It’s frustrating because Asian stories are constantly deprioritized in favor of breaking news elsewhere, leaving me spending more time pitching and convincing editors of a story’s importance rather than meeting people on the ground and reporting.

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What does beauty mean to you?

It’s very easy to just focus on negative things all the time. There are lots of problems in our society, but I don’t want to only write about what’s going wrong. I wanted to also write about the good things, especially people working to solve those problems.

No matter how bad the situation, there’s always something beautiful to be found, to stay optimistic, and be hopeful about. Beauty lies in the people who are making a difference. 

As a journalist, I strive to highlight the positives in each country, especially the goodness in people, because good people can be found everywhere in the world.

What gives you hope?

© Nithin Coca

This is my 10th year as a freelance journalist. When I started freelancing, journalism meetups in Jakarta or Singapore were dominated by older, mostly white male journalists from Europe who were generally reluctant to share or collaborate.

Now, journalism communities, especially among younger journalists, are much more open, collaborative, and supportive, with people sharing sources, experiences with editors, and advice. While Japan still has room to grow, globally it’s easier to connect and collaborate with journalists compared to 10 years ago.

Seeing many talented young journalists, including in Japan, gives me hope. I believe in empowering the next generation, ensuring that they have opportunities and support that weren’t available when I started.

I sense that there's a tremendous opportunity to build connections between Southeast Asia and Japan through more collaborative stories, projects, or exchanges — and I would love to make that happen, perhaps as a facilitator.

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For more information about Nithin Coca

• Website

• LinkedIn

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Conversations Mostly from Kyoto is a series featuring independent-spirited creatives living unconventional lives — people who inspire me. From Kyoto and beyond, we explore beauty in the ordinary and the unexpected through wide-ranging conversations on nature, culture, spirituality. 🍃

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