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September 30, 2025
 

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ENVIRONMENT

Sustainability

Climate change
Energy
Sustainability
Wildlife
Earth science
The Sarawak Energy logo at an electric vehicle charging station in Kuching on the island of Borneo. Malaysia's verdant, river-crossed state of Sarawak is charging ahead with plans to become a regional "green battery," but its renewable energy dreams could come at serious environmental cost, experts warn.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Malaysia's largest island state aims to be region's 'green battery'
Sarawak's many rivers and streams offer potentially abundant hydroelectricity, but experts warn of a serious environmental cost.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability / OUR PLANET
Shizuoka farmers fight to preserve sustainable tea method that’s steeped in tradition
The chagusaba method is sustainable, makes tea taste better and helps with biodiversity. But it’s also labor-intensive and the number of practitioners is dwindling.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Polluted and poor: Blighted U.S. cities tackle 'toxic soup'
The worst effect could be seen in poor, minority areas, where heavy industry, manufacturing and transport tend to concentrate.
Muddied prospectors pan for gold in Manica province, Mozambique, near the Zimbabwe border, in 2010.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Aug 20, 2025
Mozambique's illegal miners reap risky rewards but land suffers
By Samuel Come
Rivers around mining sites are polluted, and mercury has seeped into the soil, creating a nightmare for farmers.
Villagers pan for gold in Bombana district of Indonesia's Southeast Sulawesi province in 2009.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Aug 19, 2025
Indonesia grapples with small-scale illegal gold mining
Local authorities face the challenge of encouraging villagers to keep to less-destructive ways of making money, such as sustainable agriculture.
Delegates rest outside of the assembly hall in Geneva on Friday after talks aimed at striking a landmark treaty on tackling the scourge of plastic pollution ended without a deal.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Aug 15, 2025
'Bad actors' blamed as plastic pollution treaty talks end again without deal
By Robin Millard
Countries said they wanted further negotiations despite six rounds of talks over three years having failed to find agreement.
An Afghan woman walks next to a pile of trash full of plastic bags in Kabul.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Aug 10, 2025
Momentum sagging at U.N. plastic pollution treaty talks
By Robin Millard
The negotiations have four working days left to strike a legally-binding instrument that would tackle the growing problem choking the environment.
Ecuadorian Ambassador Luis Vayas Valdivieso at the start of plastic waste treaty negotiations in Geneva on Tuesday.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Aug 9, 2025
U.N. plastic pollution treaty talks progress not 'sufficient': chair
The negotiations, which opened on Tuesday, have four days left to find consensus on a legally binding instrument that would tackle the growing problem choking the environment.
A chicken stands in a garbage dump filled with plastic in Rodriguez, Rizal province, the Philippines, on Nov. 28, 2024.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Aug 7, 2025
Trump administration memo urges countries to reject plastic production caps
By Olivia Le Poidevin and Valerie Volcovici
The U.S. stance broadly aligns with the positions laid out by the global petrochemicals industry.
Activists stage a demonstration in front of the United Nations Offices in Geneva on Monday.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Aug 5, 2025
Pressure from oil producers and U.S. threaten global pact on plastics pollution
By Olivia Le Poidevin and Valerie Volcovici
Plastic production is set to triple by 2060 without intervention, choking oceans, harming human health and accelerating climate change, according to the OECD.

Japanese team detects gradual seafloor caving near Nankai Trough
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks at the Prime Minister's Office on Sept. 1 during an anti-disaster drill simulating an earthquake in the Nankai Trough.
Osaka Expo visitors exceed breakeven point
The Osaka Expo in Osaka on Sept. 13. The daily number of visitors to the expo has topped 200,000 since mid-September as its Oct. 13 closing approaches.
Is living in central Tokyo still affordable?
Growing families are being priced out of Tokyo’s condo market, forced to choose between downtown convenience and suburban space.
Japan private-sector pay hits record in 2024
The average salary for men was ¥5.87 million, up 3.2%, and that of women was ¥3.33 million, up 5.5%, both marking record highs.
Japan revises 30-year probability rate of Nankai Trough megaquake
A newspaper headline in Japanese about a possible Nankai Trough earthquake. In a report issued Friday, the government's Earthquake Research Committee widened the probability range for a magnitude 8 to 9 earthquake occurring off the country's Pacific coast within the next 30 years from "around 80%" to 60% to 94.5% or higher.
Architecture art exhibition highlights unsung industry artists
Yuanhui Li's illustration is one of the awardees in the student category of the American Society of Architectural Illustrators' annual award for artists.
Can Japan crack the China code in table tennis?
Tomokazu Harimoto waits for China's Wang Chuqin to serve during the men's singles final at the WTT Champions Yokohama 2025 tournament on Aug. 11.
Auberge Eaufeu brings French flair to a quiet village in Ishikawa
Located in the village of Kanagaso in Ishikawa Prefecture, Auberge Eaufeu is housed in a former elementary school that has been converted into a French-style inn.
Taiwan showcases chipmaking prowess as a private exhibitor at Osaka Expo
Visitors wait in line to enter the Tech World pavilion at the Osaka Expo on Thursday.
Tokyo retains Michelin crown with 160 starred restaurants for 2026
Tokyo's current crop of three-Michelin-starred establishments includes six Japanese restaurants, five specializing in French cuisine and one that does Chinese cuisine.

Podcast

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

Longform

Growing families are being priced out of Tokyo’s condo market, forced to choose between downtown convenience and suburban space.
Is living in central Tokyo still affordable?
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Maruhachi never sleeps in quest for better futons
Maruhachi never sleeps in quest for better futons

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