As Elon Musk pushes out from his California base to make electric vehicles ubiquitous, a Japanese firm deep in the depths of the battery supply chain is riding his wake. Tanaka Chemical Corp., which has a long history in developing battery materials, says it's boosting ...

Researchers at an Osaka-based firm are closing in on a safer generation of batteries that could weather extreme temperatures in outer space. At least that's what Hitachi Zosen Corp. is betting on. The company, better known for building plants that convert waste to energy, is ...

Making one of the world's biggest cities beautiful is a task beleaguered Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. is unlikely to relish. Tepco, which is facing $144 billion in cleanup costs in the wake of the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, has been assigned the ...

The latest robot attempting to find the 600 tons of nuclear fuel and debris that melted down six years ago in the wrecked Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant met its end in less than a day. The scorpion-shape machine, built by Toshiba Corp., entered ...

Japan's biggest electricity wholesaler knows it will take more than cutting-edge coal technology to save the environment. The Electric Power Development Co., known as J-Power, is looking to build its first major power plant that burns natural gas as well as use more woody biomass ...

The man blocking the world's largest nuclear plant says he grew opposed to atomic energy the same way some people fall in love. Previously an advocate for nuclear power, Ryuichi Yoneyama campaigned against the restart of the facility as part of his successful gubernatorial race ...

More than 6,000 workers cycle through the world's biggest nuclear plant every day to operate and maintain a facility that hasn't sold a kilowatt of electricity in more than four years. The buzz at Tokyo Electric Power Co. Holdings Inc.'s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant plays out daily ...

As Japanese prepare to head for the hills Thursday for the nation’s inaugural Mountain Day holiday, retailers and tour operators are gearing up for an  ¥820 billion windfall. They're counting on customers like schoolteacher Ayako Kobayashi. The 33-year-old spent more than $700 on a sleeping ...

Hitachi Zosen Corp., a Japanese builder of plants and bridges, is pursuing mergers and acquisitions as it seeks to strengthen its waste-to-energy plant business and expand to South Asia and the Middle East. The Osaka-based company set aside ¥40 billion ($389 million) for M&A as ...

Faced with increasing calls from environmentalists to phase out coal, Japan is standing by its support of the fossil fuel, saying it will help developing countries adopt the best available technologies for coal-fired power plants. Pressure to rein in carbon dioxide emissions is intensifying, especially ...