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July 23, 2025
 

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Virginia Furness
While leaders, researchers and activists at the third United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice, France, took steps to tackle overfishing and pollution threatening delicate ecosystems and the people who depend on them, getting countries to agree to better governance has been challenging.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Jun 17, 2025
Investors want clear ocean management rules to scale up funding
The lack of a clear governing framework and robust ocean-related data has stymied private sector finance to date.
A plastic bottle lies on the sand at Maccarese beach in Italy in 2018.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Jun 10, 2025
Development banks to invest €3 billion in ocean plastics fight
Plastic waste entering the water could triple to up to 37 million metric tons per year by 2040, from around 11 million tons in 2021, the U.N. estimates.
A heron flies over the bustling Ver-o-Peso market, in Belem, Para state, Brazil, near the site of the COP30 Summit, which will be held in November.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Mar 10, 2025
BRICS' climate leadership aims hang on healing deep divides
Diverging national interests among BRICS nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — may also prove sticking points.
Barbados Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley at the COP29 climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Nov. 12.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Dec 3, 2024
Barbados completes world's first debt swap for climate resilience
Barbados' new deal could generate around $125 million to go toward sewage treatment plant upgrades that should boost water supplies and reduce pollution.
People walk near the entrance of the venue of the United Nations climate change conference COP29, in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Monday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 20, 2024
Development banks seek private money for climate change fight
Development banks committed to increasing their lending to poorer countries to $120 billion a year by 2030.
A drone view shows a tree on fire in Humaita, Amazonas state, Brazil, on Sept. 8.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Nov 19, 2024
Can a COP29 deal clean up scandal-ridden carbon offsets?
Carbon trading is seen as one way for richer countries to meet their emissions reduction targets.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / FOCUS
Feb 28, 2023
At the home of Zara, fast and slow fashion collide
Sustainability is a problem in fashion — the EU throws out around 5.8 million tons of textile products every year, equivalent to 11 kg (24 lb) per person.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 21, 2022
Landmark U.N. deal on biodiversity gets finance and business thumbs up
The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, agreed to at recent U.N. talks, is expected to create some red tape but also new opportunities.
Foreign residents closely follow Japan's election and party pledges
A police officer walks past posters of Liberal Democratic Party candidates, as well as one showing Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, outside the party's headquarters in Tokyo on Sunday. As Japan’s foreign population continues to rise, one of the talking points during Sunday’s election was how the country should deal with the increase of international residents.
‘Japanese First’ Sanseito emerges as powerful force after Upper House poll
Sanseito leader Sohei Kamiya in Tokyo on Sunday night
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan
In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
Ishiba clings to leadership after election setback
“As the first party in parliament, we have to fulfill our responsibility with the public so as to prevent politics from stagnating or drifting away,” Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said at a news conference at the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo on Monday.
Japan ruling bloc loses majority in Upper House after election drubbing
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who serves concurrently as president of the Liberal Democratic Party, leaves at the party's headquarters following announcement of Upper House election result projections in Tokyo early Monday.
Ishiba clings to leadership after election setback
“As the first party in parliament, we have to fulfill our responsibility with the public so as to prevent politics from stagnating or drifting away,” Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said at a news conference at the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo on Monday.
Japan’s top brands get tied up in the great sunscreen debate
A coral reef in Okinawa in July 2022. Some jurisdictions around the world have moved to ban certain sunscreens in a bid to protect coral reefs, but some say the impact on reefs is far from clear.
Pentagon looks to unleash ‘military drone dominance’
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth hosts a drone demonstration at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, on July 10.
‘Noto Democracy’ and the slow work of civic change
Yukio Iokibe’s “Noto Democracy" centers on Motoyuki Takii, a former junior high school teacher who publishes a handwritten newspaper every month to encourage the residents of Anamizu, Ishikawa Prefecture, to engage in local politics.
In microbes we trust: Embracing the nature of fermented food
You don't need an oven to make Kenji Morimoto's easy and delicious Miso Sticky Toffee Crepe Cake.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Muji has been sustainable from the beginning
Muji has been sustainable from the beginning

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