More Environment Articles - The Japan Times

October 16, 2025

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Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT

Nov 14, 2002

Cleanups are only drops in the ocean

By Jack Moyer

The year was 1980. I was conducting fish research on the Great Barrier Reef, off Cape York in Queensland, northeastern Australia. After a lengthy dive, I decided to take a short rest and then explore a small, unoccupied sandy islet nearby for signs of nesting sea turtles and terns in that wonderful ocean...

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH

Nov 14, 2002

Thinking outside the box on fuel

By Stephen Hesse

First of two parts Part professor, part engineer and part philosopher, Amory Lovins is perfectly suited for the role of alternative-energy guru. A Lovins presentation is a seamless tapestry of economics, physics and mechanical engineering, sprinkled with corny one-liners, startling insights and revealing...

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER

Nov 8, 2002

Loggerhead turtle

By Rowan Hooper

* Japanese name: Ao-umigame * Scientific name: Caretta caretta * Description: Turtles are reptiles with limbs modified into swimming paddles. Loggerhead turtles have a characteristically large head, but they don't have a big brain: It's their jaws that are large. The reddish-brown carapace of adults...

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT

Nov 7, 2002

Distant decimations

By Jack Moyer

Due to the volcanic eruption at the beginning of July 2000, it's been a fairly long time since I experienced a normal Miyakejima summer. Miyakejima, my island home for many years before that, was beautiful in summer, with lush green forests, numerous birds and the deep, blue ocean all around.

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH

Nov 7, 2002

A venerable flash in the pan

By Mark Brazil

Among Japan's amazing diversity of plants that can overwhelm a visitor from overseas, there are (thankfully) some familiar forms. Astonishingly, given the literally hundreds of thousands of plant species on Earth, some here will be familiar whether you hail from North or South America, from Europe, Africa,...

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK

Nov 7, 2002

Bear facts about honey traps

By C.W. Nicol

Twenty years ago, in arguments with officials of the Forestry Agency, which was clear-cutting great swaths of old mixed forest and selling off much of the timber to be turned into wood chips, I tried to stress the individual value of various trees. In those days, a 150- to 200-year-old horse chestnut...

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER

Nov 1, 2002

By Rowan Hooper

* Japanese name: Hasami mushi * Scientific name: Dermaptera species * Description: Earwigs are small (20 mm long), dark-colored insects with flattened bodies and a semi-circular, very thin pair of wings. The wings are elaborately folded under tiny elytra (wing cases), and it is the nature of the wing...

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT

Oct 31, 2002

Farming out death

By Jack Moyer

Man years ago, while doing research related to environmental assessments of the Shiraho coral reef on Ishigaki Island, I witnessed an extreme example of a destructive human impact on a pristine, unspoiled reef.

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH

Oct 31, 2002

Birds' island havens failing whole species

By Mark Brazil

Teuri-jima Island is a special place, being a legally protected breeding habitat of seabirds. It was also the main subject of a recent Japan-U.S. government-level symposium in the nearby mainland town of Haboro, Hokkaido. Shocking facts emerged from that meeting.

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER

Oct 25, 2002

By Rowan Hooper

* Japanese name: Himekamakirimodoki * Scientific name: Mantispa japonica * Description: Mantidflies are about 25 mm long. They belong to an unusual order of insects, the Neuroptera (the name means "network wing"). Like other neuropterans, such as lacewings, mantidflies have two pairs of fine, delicately...

ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH

Oct 24, 2002

Getting up close and personal with global issues

By Stephen Hesse

While studying and researching in England several years ago, Eno Nakamura was surprised to find that Japanese and English children had strikingly different views of the future. That contrast convinced her of a critical need for Japanese schools to put more emphasis on "the future," and to get their students...

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / GARDENS FOR ALL

Oct 24, 2002

Aliens add to autumn show

By Gerard Taaffe

Autumn in Japan is a colorful season, and not only because of the famed koyo foliage of its trees. In gardens, fields and roadsides, too, flowers burst forth as if to celebrate the return of sensible weather after the long, sweaty rigors of summer. However, some of the best-known blooms of this fall...

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Rock group The Yellow Monkey played K-Arena Yokohama in June as part of a nationwide tour. Concerts are increasingly popular in the age of social media as users value in-person experiences.

Inside Japan’s arena boom: Sports, sound and city-building

By Patrick St. Michel

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo

Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo

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