Stephen Stapczynski - The Japan Times

August 31, 2025

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Stephen Stapczynski

JAPAN

Nov 2, 2016

Japan's soccer team to return to training camp used in Fukushima cleanup

The base for the cleanup of the Fukushima nuclear plant that suffered core meltdowns in 2011 will be returned by March to its original use: the training camp for the Japanese national soccer team.

Japan Times

BUSINESS / Companies

Oct 21, 2016

Japanese utility urges all-electric homes to sell expected excess of electricity

The first Japanese utility to restart a nuclear reactor under post-Fukushima rules has resumed a campaign urging users to increase power consumption.

JAPAN

Oct 21, 2016

2017 gubernatorial elections may pose snag to Abe's reactor restart quest

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ambition to restart the country's fleet of nuclear reactors may face further challenges from regional elections.

BUSINESS

Oct 19, 2016

Suicide of overworked woman, 24, prompts ad giant Dentsu to trim overtime hours

The suicide of a woman who worked excessive hours at Japan's biggest advertising agency has prompted the company to lower the amount of overtime employees can book.

BUSINESS / Companies

Aug 4, 2016

Energy rout fells Japan's venerated 'Big Three' trading giants

The energy price collapse is doing in Japan what the Great Depression and two world wars couldn't: put an end to a century of dominance by its three most prestigious companies.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Jul 14, 2016

Sun no longer shines on Japan's solar boom as subsidies wane

Japan's solar boom is beginning to falter.

BUSINESS / Companies

Jun 24, 2016

First Energy taps biomass in Japan for market-leading gains

A little-known Tokyo-based company's commitment to biomass has made it a darling among investors.

BUSINESS / Economy

Jun 21, 2016

Hot spring bathing tradition stymies Japan's clean energy ambitions

With centuries of tradition on their side, Japan's hordes of naked bathers remain unmoved by the island nation's bid to tap a rich reserve of power equivalent to about 20 nuclear reactors.

Japan Times

BUSINESS

Jun 9, 2016

Japan's solar splurge may result in cooler power costs this summer

Japan's conundrum of peak power prices may begin to ease as the country's solar-power expansion taps scorching summers to displace fossil fuels.

Japan Times

BUSINESS

Jun 7, 2016

Japan's trading houses trying to beat U.S. to Cuba

Japan's largest trading houses are positioning themselves in Cuba before any easing of U.S. sanctions, seeking opportunities in infrastructure, resources and automobiles as Havana emerges from near-isolation.

JAPAN

Jun 2, 2016

Japan's Monju reactor a costly hot potato no one wants to handle

Japan is missing its own deadline to find a new operator for a prototype nuclear power program that has failed to succeed in the two decades since it was built, threatening the resource-poor country's support of a technology other nations have abandoned.

BUSINESS / Companies

Apr 19, 2016

Mitsubishi CEO Kakiuchi seeks 'urgent' shift after commodities collapse

Mitsubishi Corp. is shifting growth away from its energy and mining-related businesses after being stung by the metals and oil collapse that led it to forecast its first-ever annual loss on a group basis.

JAPAN

Mar 21, 2016

Five years after Fukushima disasters, region encourages rise of robotics

Japan is spending more than $1 billion to resurrect the area around the wrecked Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant as the country's "Innovation Coast."

Japan Times

LIFE / Food & Drink

Mar 11, 2016

Winemakers plant seeds of tourism in Japan's disaster zone

Making wine is difficult anywhere in Japan, but try doing it in a part of the country that has been rocked by an earthquake and tsunami, and spurned because of a nuclear disaster.

BUSINESS

Feb 28, 2016

Cutesy mascots lead charge to woo customers away from electricity giants

In the battle for a slice of the ¥8.1 trillion ($72 billion) retail electricity market, Japan's biggest power companies are lining up against a cuddly bear, a fluffy white dog and a gorilla in business attire.

JAPAN / Science & Health

Jan 5, 2016

Japan's ¥2.9 trillion nuclear recycling quest coming up on three decades

The Rokkasho facility is designed to recycle spent uranium has been under construction for nearly three decades. The amount of fuel successfully reprocessed for commercial use: zero.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Oct 10, 2015

Tepco expects to begin freezing ice wall at Fukushima No. 1 by year-end

Tokyo Electric Power Co. expects to begin freezing a soil barrier by the end of the year to stop water entering the wrecked Fukushima nuclear facility.

BUSINESS

Jul 30, 2015

Japan's reliance on coal, especially clean tech, poses costly challenge to cut emissions

Japan will depend on new coal technology that's more than twice the cost of traditional plants to meet its targets on reducing global warming pollution.

JAPAN

Jul 2, 2015

Tepco seeks foreign seal of approval to restart nuclear plant

The utility's invitation to the world's top nuclear agency to review the safety of its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa facility signals a desire to win support to restart the world's largest nuclear plant.

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.

From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past

By Alex K.T. Martin

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