For Yuka Obayashi's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Sprawled across a spent volcano on the remote edge of the Great Victoria Desert in Western Australia, the Mount Weld mine seems a world away from the U.S.-China trade war. But the dispute has been a lucrative one for Lynas Corp., Mount Weld's Australian owner. ...
Indian aluminum producers including Hindalco Industries and Vedanta Ltd. are boosting sales to Japan as U.S. sanctions against Russia's Rusal and import tariffs shake up traditional supply routes. India's product has generally not been regarded as high enough quality by Japan's demanding buyers, who have ...
Japanese steel and engineering companies are in the driver's seat to bag major supply contracts for a $17 billion (around ¥1.8 trillion) Indian bullet train, several sources said, undermining a key component of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's economic policy — a push to "Make ...
Japan sees little chance of the oil spill from a stricken Iranian tanker that sank on Sunday in the East China Sea reaching its shores, an official at the nation's Environment Ministry said on Tuesday. The large tanker Sanchi sank in the worst oil ship ...
As the sun sets on Japan's solar energy boom, companies and investors are rushing into wood-burning biomass projects to lock in still-high government subsidies. More than 800 projects have already won government approval, offering 12.4 gigawatts of capacity — equal to 12 nuclear reactors and ...
Japan may not achieve its carbon emissions target if an ambitious plan to build more coal-fired power plants moves ahead, the environment minister said, underlining Tokyo's struggle to meet globally agreed goals to halt climate change. Even as it champions the Paris climate agreement, Japan ...
On select Canadian farms, thousands of pigs bound for Japan are basking in five-star treatment. Japan's growing appetite for pricey pork cuts is driving Canadian and U.S. fresh pork exports to record levels, spurring producers to leverage every advantage in the race for market share. While ...
After December's landslide re-election, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's program to revive the nation's economy is set to meet perhaps its stiffest challenge, the nation's sclerotic farming industry. He will soon submit legislation to reform agriculture, a sector where a dwindling band of aging farmers works ...
The United States has challenged the Japanese government over moves to ramp up exports of coal-fired power technology and to offer cheap loans to lure buyers, according to a U.S. source with direct knowledge of the matter. Japan's shipments of the equipment soared to nearly ...
The Japanese government lobbied hard for a global pact that limits mercury use and to name the resulting treaty after Minamata, the site of a homegrown industrial disaster from the 1950s when the toxic metal poured into a river, poisoning thousands. But a year after ...
