from mid-February 1995. Most of the buildings, as well as the arcade roof, have since been rebuilt, and the city's largest arcade now bustles with shoppers. REIJI YOSHIDA PHOTOS

The worst-hit area was the prefectural capital of Kobe.

Our Planet

A worker sorts plastic waste for recycling at Minato Resource Recycle Center in Tokyo in 2019. Japan has been criticized by environmental groups for its strategy on plastics, which is heavily reliant on recycling instead of reduction.
Are microplastics hurting our fertility?

Longform

Construction equipment sits idle in a park near Shiba Toshogu shrine in Tokyo's Minato Ward. While Japan has a history of treating its trees with reverence, green coverage is said to be lacking in most of the major cities.
Do Japan's trees no longer occupy the sacred space they used to?