Search - environment

 
 
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Apr 25, 2007

Ponder awhile the wisdom of Bhutan

If nations had laws requiring that we all went about our business wisely and with respect for the planet, those laws would prioritize precaution and force polluters to clean up their mess.
JAPAN
Feb 22, 2003

Bill seeks to ensure genetic engineering doesn't get out of hand

The government is facing an unusual challenge -- regulating a science that has not yet proved harmful.
JAPAN / STAGING A COMEBACK
Oct 18, 2001

Japan moves to compete on greener side of the street

Gone are the days when Japanese businesses felt a healthy environment was a concept that could only be achieved at the expense of economic growth.
EDITORIALS
Jun 5, 1999

A wakeup call for us all

About a year ago, biologists woke up to a startling phenomenon: Amphibians -- frogs, toads, salamanders and newts -- were vanishing. No one knows why, but the results are pretty uniform across the world. Many people will not spare much anguish for the amphibians, but the fate of the frog is worth pondering...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan / Geoeconomic Briefing
Jan 26, 2023

Japan's future security lies in a ‘denial and competition’ strategy

The gap between the defense capabilities of China and Japan is widening at a tremendous pace, giving Tokyo cause to think carefully.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 26, 2015

'Ōsōji': ways to keep your home spick and span

Three experts discuss their philosophy on the New Year's chore that everybody loves — cleaning.
Japan Times
LIFE
Aug 23, 2009

Japan's creeping natural disaster

In October 2010, government officials from almost every country in the world will meet in Nagoya for the 10th Conference of Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP10). The aim of the Convention, which came into effect in 1993, is simple but momentous: To maintain the richness of life on...
JAPAN
Feb 28, 2007

Is environmental protection in the (pay-per) bag?

Like many other customers at the OK Jumbo Sagan supermarket, Kumiko Fujimoto saves at least 6 yen by taking her own bag to the Tokyo store.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 29, 2018

Officials discuss water quality hopes at home, abroad

Water is a basic need for humans, the environment and the Earth. Governments, engineers and researchers have worked together toward securing water supplies and managing water quality around the world. The International Water Association is one of the biggest international organizations working to achieve...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 17, 2018

Lies and the lying bureaucrats who tell them

The current political situation characterized by the domination of the prime minister's office has ruined the pride of career bureaucrats.
ENVIRONMENT
Jan 18, 2014

Will Japan prepared mean nature ruined?

"Resilience" is a hot topic these days — not in self-help books, but among policymakers worldwide. As governments become convinced that climate change is a real threat, they are taking steps to ensure communities can bounce back from the increasing impact of floods, storms, fires and droughts they...
Japan Times
LIFE
Mar 11, 2012

Young hopes bloom eternal

The first anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake is a time to commemorate the victims of that terrible tragedy. But it is also an opportunity to look to the future.
COMMENTARY
Apr 7, 2008

Starving the emissions beast

The focus of the debate on climate change has shifted drastically in the past several years. The Kyoto Protocol was signed in 1997 on the assumption that climate change and global warming were being caused by emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Sep 26, 2007

Turning waste into rich resources

Visit Calcutta, even briefly, and you soon learn the rules of the road — or rather that there aren't many, if any. You will also meet some of the planet's most resourceful people, from street children to scientists who are masters of making very little go a long way.
JAPAN
May 28, 2007

Media, NGOs help China become environmentally aware

The media and nongovernmental organizations are beginning to play a role in shaping China's environment protection policies as awareness of the costs of its rapid growth spreads among policymakers as well as the public, a group of Chinese journalists told a recent symposium in Tokyo.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Apr 21, 2005

Matters of survival in a 'shattered world'

One of the best things about writing a newspaper column is that I get a chance to meet people whose paths I might otherwise never cross. Last weekend, at the Odaiba waterfront launch of Earth Day Tokyo 2005, I had the rare pleasure of meeting and interviewing two environmentalists I have long admired,...
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 4, 2004

Effort afoot to put Japan on eco-tour map

The government has embarked on a project to make Japan a major travel destination in the 21st century, hoping this not only boosts the domestic tourism industry but offers other windfalls as well.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 4, 2004

Effort afoot to put Japan on eco-tour map

The government has embarked on a project to make Japan a major travel destination in the 21st century, hoping this not only boosts the domestic tourism industry but offers other windfalls as well.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Mar 3, 2002

Ken Noguchi: Climb (and clean) every mountain

When Ken Noguchi reached the summit of Mount Everest in 1999, at the age of 25 he became the youngest person to have scaled the highest peaks on all seven continents. Born to a Japanese father and Egyptian mother, he grew up moving around the globe. His love affair with the dizzy heights of high-altitude...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 19, 2001

Environmental destruction dooms us all

"Environmental security" has three different meanings. First, it can be used to explain conflict. Resources can be causes, tools, or targets of warfare. Disputes over water can cause conflict between nations. Upstream states can use water as a tool of warfare by manipulating shared river basins to inflict...
JAPAN
Jun 23, 2000

Network to monitor pollution

Japan plans to set up an Internet-based program to monitor the environment in the Asia-Pacific region in an effort to assist in the early detection of environmental degradation, Environment Agency sources said Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 22, 2000

Use Earth's ecosystems more sustainably

The findings of a new report sponsored by the U.N. Development Program, the U.N. Environmental Program and the World Bank, titled "World Resources 2000-2001: People and Ecosystems: The Fraying Web of Life," underscore the fact that the growing worldwide demand for resources is threatening the world's...
JAPAN
Jun 4, 1999

UNEP kicks off third global photo contest

The head of the U.N. Environment Program announced Friday in Tokyo the launch of the world's largest photography contest in anticipation of World Environment Day.
JAPAN
Sep 12, 1997

Australian minister queries Tokyo on Isahaya project

Staff writer
Japan Times
Special Supplements / Hiroshima G7 Summit Special
May 19, 2023

Diversification fueled through ‘education of conscience’

In 1864, when the isolationist foreign policy of the Tokugawa shogunate was still in effect, Jo Niijima, a 21-year-old son of a samurai, left Japan for the United States, risking capital punishment. For Niijima, it was an adventurous quest to seek a land where greater equality, freedom and human rights...
Japan Times
Special Supplements / Hiroshima G7 Summit Special
May 19, 2023

Freedom to examine topics from various perspectives

Sophia University, the first Jesuit and oldest Catholic university in Japan, is celebrating its 110th anniversary this year. “Amid the dynamically shifting global landscape, we are questioning the role we should play in Japanese society and how we can serve the international community,” said university...
Japan Times
Rugby
May 7, 2020

Former Springboks scrum coach Matt Proudfoot growing under England's Eddie Jones

After watching the South Africa pack demolish England in last year's Rugby World Cup final, coach Eddie Jones' next step was obvious — get the coaching brains behind the Springbok scrum, Matt Proudfoot, to jump ship and head to Twickenham.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 16, 2019

Plastic reuse the most efficient way to solve marine waste issue, experts say

Although marine plastic has become a prominent environmental issue in recent years, plastic is too valuable a resource to ever truly go away, so effectively managing such waste and placing it in a circular economy system would be the most efficient way to solve the issue, experts at a Tokyo seminar said...
EDITORIALS
Jun 4, 2016

Get science back on solid ground

The government needs to assess its policies on research funding to make sure everything possible is being done to keep Japanese science on top.

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