Search - environment

 
 
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Mar 4, 2016

Obama-led EPA rule to curb mercury air pollution stands: Supreme Court

The U.S. Supreme Court sided with the Obama administration on Thursday in rebuffing a bid by 20 states to halt an Environmental Protection Agency rule to curb emissions of mercury and other toxic pollutants from power plants.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 3, 2016

Russia may be preparing a privatization fire sale

Faced with a rapidly deteriorating fiscal position, Russia's government has announced that it will privatize major state-owned firms, but institutional reforms are needed first.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Mar 2, 2016

Upon re-entry back home after expat life, brace yourself for turbulence

Survey of Japanese returnees suggests two divergent emotional journeys for those heading back home after a stretch abroad.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 29, 2016

The high price of Japan's economic gaffes

Finance minister Taro Aso's ability to survive repeated gaffes shows how little has changed under Abenomics.
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Feb 28, 2016

Icy Kanazawa, sunny Naha: A tale of two live scenes

I have been traveling around the country since September meeting people involved in different independent music scenes in such places as Hokkaido, and Iwate and Saitama prefectures. After taking a break over winter, I resumed my travels this month and headed to the contrasting environments of icy Ishikawa...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 28, 2016

Europeans should spend more for their defense

The question has to be asked: Why is the U.S. defending Europe? The need for America to play an overwhelming role disappeared when the Cold War ended.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Feb 28, 2016

Japan Inc. slowly shedding LGBT taboos but bias laws still lag

Yusuke Kitamura hid his sexuality from colleagues for most of his career. It was only after joining one of Japan's oldest brokerages last year that he could tell them he was gay.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy / YEN FOR LIVING
Feb 27, 2016

Uncertainty over negative interest and My Number may spur Japanese to stash more cash at home

Japanese people already store an enormous amount of cash in their homes, and this trend is only likely to increase in the wake of recent developments.
JAPAN
Feb 26, 2016

Japan restarts fourth atomic reactor since 2012 moratorium

The Takahama No. 4 reactor in Fukui becomes the fourth to be restarted since 2012 and the first to burn plutonium-containing MOX fuel.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Feb 26, 2016

Young guns take aim at declining sake sales

Sake in Japan is undergoing an image makeover. It's desperately trying to become one of the cool kids again. Currently the second-lowest consumed alcoholic beverage in the country — whiskey and brandy being the lowest — sake only has a 6.8 percent market share according to a National Tax Agency Report...
WORLD / Science & Health
Feb 26, 2016

Gas from thawing permafrost could add further to global warming, study says

Arctic permafrost that is thawing due to global warming is releasing greenhouse gases, further compounding the problem of climate change, according to a study released on Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 25, 2016

Parsing the Sunnylands Declaration 'principles'

The Sunnylands Declaration is full of false hopes and disengenousness.
BUSINESS
Feb 25, 2016

G-20 action needed on growth, IMF report says

The world's biggest economies urgently need new ways to support demand and contain risks as the outlook for global growth deteriorates, International Monetary Fund staff members say.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Feb 24, 2016

NGO's Japanese founder foments organic revolution in Vietnam

Seed to Table helps locals rediscover lost agricultural wisdom and pull themselves out of poverty with duck and cow 'banks.'
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 24, 2016

China seen locking in gains as fighter jets reported on isle in South China Sea

In the latest in a series of moves that is likely to stoke already heated tensions in the South China Sea, Beijing has sent fighter jets to an island where it has deployed surface-to-air missile batteries, U.S. media said Tuesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 23, 2016

Key lessons from the latest North Korean crisis

The North Korea crisis reveals deep-rooted problems in the region.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 22, 2016

Beijing's Paracel military buildup seen as precursor to Spratly ambitions

From listening posts to jet fighter deployments and now surface-to-air missiles, China's expanding facilities in the Paracel Islands are a signal of long-term plans to strengthen its military reach across the disputed South China Sea.
EDITORIALS
Feb 21, 2016

Egg-freezing: choice and risk

Freezing a woman's eggs so she can give birth later in life opens up important questions that should be addressed before the technology becomes even more widespread.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Feb 19, 2016

Japanese team finds new way to create, research Parkinson's stem cells

Researchers from Juntendo and Keio universities have come up with a quicker and easier way to generate iPS cells from people with Parkinson's disease, a discovery they claim will go a long way in developing a cure for the neurological disease.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 18, 2016

Exports suffer greatest fall in six years on China woes

Exports fall for a fourth consecutive month and the most since late 2009, underscoring continued weakness in the Japanese economy.
Japan Times
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Feb 18, 2016

Beijing missile deployment could lay groundwork for South China Sea ADIZ

Beijing's deployment of surface-to-air missiles to an island in the Paracel chain could lead to a new air defense identification zone in South China Sea, analysts say.

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb