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Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 12, 2007

Japan enters orbit of nations exploring the moon

The moon has languished in the shadows of space exploration since the heyday of manned missions in the 1960s and 1970s, eclipsed by projects focused on Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, not to mention the U.S. space shuttle and the International Space Station.
BUSINESS
Aug 28, 2007

Kepco enters carbon-credit deal

Kansai Electric Power Co. has agreed to buy carbon credits from a Malaysian fertilizer maker to help Japan meet its emissions targets under the Kyoto Protocol.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 24, 2007

Plan to move venerable Tsukiji market draws fire

Trucks transporting ice, fish and produce traverse a maze of narrow alleys, threading their way through throngs of visitors.
COMMENTARY
Jun 18, 2007

The first to save the planet

HONG KONG — Focusing on climate change, the most recent Group of Eight meeting, chaired by Germany and attended by five of the world's biggest developing countries, marked a significant step forward in a battle for nothing less than the survival of humanity on this planet.
EDITORIALS
Jun 16, 2007

Toward greener transportation

A compromise agreement at the Group of Eight summit to seriously consider halving global greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050 incorporates Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's proposal for halving the emissions by that year without setting a baseline year. Japan, the host of next year's G8 summit, must do its utmost...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jun 12, 2007

Japan's green strides belie spotty record

Last month, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sought a leading role in the fight against climate change when he proposed a global initiative to halve greenhouse gas emis sions by 2050.
EDITORIALS
May 28, 2007

Strategic Economic Dialogue stumbles

The increasingly shrill dialogue between the United States and China over economic issues should sound familiar to many Japanese. A swelling U.S. trade deficit with China has led to demands by Washington for the revaluation of the Chinese currency, threats of trade sanctions from Congress, and angry...
BUSINESS
Apr 28, 2007

Improving consumer lifestyle choices key to meeting CO2 goals

Consumer behavior holds the key to Japan's ability to fulfill its commitments under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol to fight global warming, as rising greenhouse gas emissions in the household and transport sectors make it increasingly hard to achieve the nation's goals, said participants in a recent symposium...
COMMENTARY
Apr 5, 2007

Shaking up Russia's Far East

LONDON -- If you Google "Vladimir Nikolaev," mayor of Vladivostok, 2007," you will come up with an interesting story about how he was recently arrested. You will also find stories about how he resisted arrest, but finished up in handcuffs.
JAPAN
Feb 19, 2007

Local leaders undaunted by tough greenhouse goals

KYOTO -- Think globally and act locally may be a cliche. But as the ambitious goals set by participants of the Kyoto Conference on Climate Change demonstrated, local governments worldwide are feeling the effects of global warming and believe they can no longer wait on national leaders to do something...
JAPAN
Feb 18, 2007

Local leaders OK post-Kyoto plan

KYOTO -- More than 100 local government leaders from 26 nations agreed Saturday to an ambitious plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jan 14, 2007

Get out of this world

Forget Hawaii, Hong Kong, Bali, Britain or Paris -- before too long your family vacation choices will include staying at space hotels or taking a 10-day spin around the moon.
BUSINESS
Dec 4, 2006

Doubts hamper hydrogen's spread

Despite the BMW Group's assurance that it has taken every precaution and covered the worst-case scenarios, many people still doubt the wisdom of using highly flammable hydrogen as a fuel.
COMMENTARY
Aug 9, 2006

Beijing loath to cast the fate of elections in Hong Kong to the wind

HONG KONG -- With Hong Kong having entered its 10th year as a Chinese special administrative region, pressure is building on Beijing to honor its promise of allowing full democratization of this former British colony. Opinion surveys consistently show that the majority of Hong Kong residents want to...
BASEBALL / MLB
Feb 10, 2006

Ex-Giants skipper Fujita dies at 74

Former Yomiuri Giants manager Motoshi Fujita, who led the Central League club to two Japan Series titles, died of heart failure Thursday evening at a Tokyo hospital. He was 74.
COMMENTARY
Jan 9, 2006

Post-Kyoto wind picking up

The 11th Conference of Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change was held in Montreal from Nov. 28 to Dec. 9, more than a year after Russia ratified the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, thus enabling it to take effect last Feb. 16.
JAPAN
Sep 24, 2005

Economic growth making emissions goal elusive

Japan may have difficulty reaching its greenhouse gases-reduction goal under the Kyoto Protocol if its economy grows at a pace of around 1 percent annually, according to a recent study by a team of environment experts from Japan and Britain.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 5, 2005

How London blitzed Paris for the Games

SINGAPORE -- London's winning bid for the 2012 Olympics at the 117th Session of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Singapore came as a surprise July 6. The IOC voted 54-50 for London after Madrid, New York and Moscow were eliminated in the earlier rounds. French newspapers were already reporting...
COMMENTARY
Jul 30, 2005

Chirac sees his fortunes slip

PARIS -- After a majority of French voters handed President Jacques Chirac a defeat by voting no in a referendum on the proposed EU constitution, he kept his fingers crossed in the hope that Paris would be chosen to host the 2012 Games. You can imagine his disappointment when the International Olympic...
OLYMPICS
Jul 12, 2005

IOC decision to drop baseball not welcome news in Japan

Japan did its best to keep baseball in the Olympic program. That made the decision by the International Olympic Committee to drop the sport from the 2012 London Games that much harder to take.
COMMENTARY
Mar 7, 2005

Let taxes spur carbon cuts

On Feb. 16, the Kyoto Protocol, aimed at curbing the air pollution blamed for global warming, took effect. To become valid, the accord had to be ratified by at least 55 countries, including developed countries that accounted for at least 55 percent of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gas emissions...
EDITORIALS
Feb 16, 2005

Flawed compromise takes effect

The Kyoto Protocol on climate change takes effect Wednesday after more than seven years of difficult and complex negotiations aimed at reducing emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases. Perhaps future generations will remember Feb. 16, 2005, as the day the world launched a determined...
JAPAN
Jan 5, 2005

Japan to revise CO2 goal to a rise rather than a cut

Japan plans to revise its target for carbon dioxide emissions from energy uses to a 0.4 percent increase in fiscal 2010 from the current target of a 2.0 percent cut under a new action program to be adopted in March for the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.
JAPAN
Nov 7, 2004

Japan now has to get serious about greenhouse gases

When Russian President Vladimir Putin put the finishing touches on his country's ratification of the Kyoto Protocol on Friday, reducing greenhouse gas emissions also moved one notch higher on Japan's policy agenda.
JAPAN
Nov 18, 2003

Carbon credits beat bioethanol

The cost of reducing carbon dioxide in Japan by using bioethanol fuel will be 52 times higher compared with purchasing carbon dioxide emission-reduction credits overseas, according to a recent government study.
JAPAN
Aug 28, 2003

Environment panel calls for carbon tax in 2005

A government advisory panel tasked with studying environmental taxes adopted a proposal Wednesday for the introduction of a carbon levy by as early as 2005.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami