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August 31, 2025
 

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More Environment stories

Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jun 16, 2005
Worlds of nature are just a click away
By Mark Brazil
Although I've only just packed away my skiing gear (the remnant snowfields have crept too close to the peaks to make the physical cost of carrying heavy boots and skis so far uphill worth the downhill benefits), and though mountain cherry blossoms have only recently begun to shed their petals here in...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jun 9, 2005
Four-lined rat snake
By Rowan Hooper
* Japanese name: Shimahebi * Scientific name: Elaphe quadrivirgata * Description: Unfortunately, despite the name, this snake does not always have four lines running down its length. Often it has black lines running down a light-brown body (as in the photo), or sometimes lighter, dashed lines that...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Jun 2, 2005
'Weed' of wonder fresh from the sea
By C.W. Nicol
I first consciously ate kelp when I came to Japan in 1962. Slowly stewed, it took the form of those small, almost black bows of a soft and tasty vegetable in the traditional, souplike dish of oden. Later I ate it wrapped around fish, or used it with dried bonito as a base for soup stock. I chose the...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
May 26, 2005
Butterfly dragonfly
By Rowan Hooper
* Japanese name: Choutonbo * Scientific name: Rhyothemis fuliginosa * Description: With huge wings colored a beautiful deep blue, this dragonfly is unmistakable. Its body is fairly short and stout, at 32-41 mm long, while its hind wings are 30-40 mm across. The name "butterfly dragonfly" refers...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
May 26, 2005
Mining the Earth's problems for drama
By Stephen Hesse
'It starts with the Earth. How can it not?"
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
May 19, 2005
Birders' islet of delights
By Mark Brazil
The last month has been one of considerable atmospheric variety here where I live in Hokkaido, with laggardly spring weather lapsing back to winter sunshine and warmth, then being followed by snow and cold winds. It has been playing havoc with blossoming times, bumblebee emergence and spring bird migration....
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
May 12, 2005
Brown-eared bulbul
By Rowan Hooper
* Japanese name: Hiyodori * Scientific name: Ixos amaurotis * Description: These are medium-size songbirds that grow to about 28 cm long. They are mainly olive brown with a white face and eyebrow, throat and belly; they have a small crest. The bill, feet and eyes are black. Males and females look...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
May 5, 2005
Swallow tales to silence those who speak with forked tongues
By C.W. Nicol
It was 1969, and I was driving our open-topped Mercedes Unimog to Asmara to get some building supplies and other gear not available in Gondar, the nearest town to the Simien Mountain National Park in Ethiopia where I was then a game warden.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Apr 28, 2005
A dream comes true as one mighty ocean-dweller nests under myriad stars
By Mark Brazil
It was as dark a night as I can ever remember, and one I will never forget.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Apr 28, 2005
Gray-headed Lapwing
By Rowan Hooper
* Japanese name: Keri * Scientific name: Vanellus cinereus * Description: Lapwings are attractive, plump, medium-size birds (body length 30 cm; wingspan about 85 cm) with large orange eyes, yellow legs and a yellow bill with a black tip. The head and neck are gray, as are the tops of the wings,...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Apr 21, 2005
Matters of survival in a 'shattered world'
By Stephen Hesse
One of the best things about writing a newspaper column is that I get a chance to meet people whose paths I might otherwise never cross. Last weekend, at the Odaiba waterfront launch of Earth Day Tokyo 2005, I had the rare pleasure of meeting and interviewing two environmentalists I have long admired,...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Apr 21, 2005
Time to honor the planet, every day
By Stephen Hesse
'If the environment is a fad, then it's going to be our last fad," warned Denis Hayes at the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, having given up his own graduate studies at Harvard only months before to organize this historic event.
Philippine bid to acquire used Japanese warships gains steam
Tokyo is looking to transfer Abukuma-class vessels to the Philippines as part of broader efforts to boost the defense capabilities of like-minded neighbors amid growing Chinese military assertiveness in the region.
Japan to launch broad review of immigration policies amid rise in foreign nationals
Foreign tourists at Narita Airport in June. A report released Friday stresses that Japan is at a turning point and that current ad-hoc measures on immigration are no longer sufficient.
Top Japan trade negotiator canceled U.S. trip over rice, report says
Ryosei Akazawa
Most Japanese teens struggling with school find end of summer ‘painful’
Some 93.1% of Japanese teenagers who struggle with school life said they felt like they “wanted to disappear from the world" at the end of summer vacation ahead of the start of a new term, according to a recent survey released by Yokohama-based nonprofit Daisan Kazoku.
Most Trump tariffs are not legal, U.S. appeals court rules
Workers hang a large poster of U.S. President Donald Trump on the facade of the Department of Labor headquarters building in Washington on Wednesday.
Japan to launch broad review of immigration policies amid rise in foreign nationals
Foreign tourists at Narita Airport in June. A report released Friday stresses that Japan is at a turning point and that current ad-hoc measures on immigration are no longer sufficient.
YouTube Music Weekend is where Japan’s internet-born performers go global
Headlining the second day of YouTube Music Weekend is Vocaloid artist Kikuo, who, with 1.46 million YouTube subscribers, is one of the most popular artists in the genre.
Japan looks to build drone ‘shield’ in record defense budget request
A group of Ground Self-Defense Force service members discuss drone operations and capabilities at a joint static display during the Orient Shield 24 opening ceremony at the Yausubetsu Training Area in Hokkaido in July last year.
Can anime carry the memories of World War II?
Many schools in Japan show "Grave of the Fireflies" as educational material to tell the emotionally grueling story of a boy who has no means to prevent his sister from starving to death.
Jesse Kirkwood: ‘Languages are entire cultural universes with all sorts of baggage’
Jesse Kirkwood is part of a vibrant field of translators who have nurtured what might be called a “post-Murakami era of Japanese literature and translation,” one book at a time.

Podcast

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

Longform

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

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