More Environment Articles - The Japan Times

August 31, 2025

Today's print edition

Subscribe for more access

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER

Aug 26, 2004

Brown-lined puffer

By Rowan Hooper

* Japanese name: Kitamakura * Scientific name: Canthigaster rivulata * Description: Puffer fish have plump bodies and thick, smooth skin interrupted by large bulging eyes. In many parts of Japan, puffer fish are called fugu, which is written using Chinese characters that mean "river pig." In western...

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH

Aug 19, 2004

Down in the grim intertidal zone

By Mark Brazil

A coffee-shop friend of mine recently summed up his appreciation of our local lowland forest just outside Sapporo, saying: "You know, it's wonderful here; every season is the best season." And, you know, he has a powerful point.

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER

Aug 12, 2004

Black-eared kite Tobi

By Rowan Hooper

* Japanese name: Tobi * Scientific name:Milvus lineatus * Description: Kites are large raptors, birds of prey with a noticeably forked tail. The black-eared kite has dark brown plumage (darker than the plumage of its close relative, the red kite), and black feathers over its ears. They have large wings...

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH

Aug 12, 2004

Environment groups who do it in the streets

By Stephen Hesse

Hester Van Hooven Ward is pretty hard to miss when she greets you on the street with a wave and a big smile, then launches into her "rap": "Hi! How are you? Do you have a minute for the environment today?" she calls out to strangers.

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK

Aug 5, 2004

Woodland beauty there for all to sense

By C.W. Nicol

Just about the time when the wild wood irises burst into glorious purple around early July up here in Nagano Prefecture, high in the treetops there is a dancing, fluttering ballet of countless white-winged creatures.

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT

Jul 29, 2004

Who prefers concrete and cars to Tokyo's natural gem?

By Ken Kawashima

With its oddly ear-shaped black-and-white striped body, the hammer-size mimigata tennannsho, a grass that grows in the depths of Mount Takao's forests, has long been an object of fascination and loathing to hikers in the western Tokyo quasi-national park, where it's not just its grotesque shape that...

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / GARDEN PATHS

Jul 24, 2004

Down by the watersides

By Linda Inoki

In the heat of summer we are naturally drawn to water, and for centuries water has been a vital element in Oriental gardens. In the ninth century, the Chinese poet Po-Chu-i (known as Hakurakuten in Japan) wrote about a small pond in his garden, and his words still evoke the timeless pleasures of the...

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER

Jul 22, 2004

By Rowan Hooper

* Japanese name: Hashibosogarasu * Scientific name: Corvus corone * Description: Crows are large birds, growing up to 50 cm long with a wingspan of 104 cm. They have entirely black plumage and black eyes. Two species are common in Japan, the carrion crow and the jungle crow, and it's difficult to tell...

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH

Jul 15, 2004

'Hideous alien' had an exotic past

By Mark Brazil

Sometimes accidentally, sometimes to order, we humans transport a bewildering array of species about the world. Many of them wither under the regimens of their new environments; alas, some thrive to the detriment of the locals.

ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH

Jul 8, 2004

Renewable energy sources offer global chance to shed fossil fuels

By Stephen Hesse

As the leading national consumer of fossil fuels, the United States churns out almost a quarter of all the industrial carbon dioxide worldwide. Apologists say this is the price that must be paid in exchange for driving the global economy. Realists see such hubris as eventually undermining human viability...

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER

Jul 8, 2004

By Rowan Hooper

* Japanese name: Kosagi * Scientific name: Egretta garzetta * Description: The Little Egret is a bird related to the heron, with snow-white plumage, a long, pointed black bill and black legs with bright yellow feet. Its body is 50-60 cm long. In the breeding season in summer, the feet turn bright red,...

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT

Jul 2, 2004

Losing battle being fought to keep Kanagawa beaches clean

By Atsuko Sekiguchi

FUJISAWA, Kanagawa Pref. -- It's almost 5 a.m. and the sky is warming as the sun rolls up to burst open the horizon. The pacific rhythm of the ocean waves dominates the soundscape of the virtually deserted beach.

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

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Maruhachi never sleeps in quest for better futons

Maruhachi never sleeps in quest for better futons

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER

international-reports