Search - environment

 
 
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 14, 2023

Experts back more robust U.S. estimates of social cost of carbon

Some 400 scientists and climate experts expressed support for a U.S. government proposal to revise a key metric that estimates the damage from carbon dioxide emissions.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health
Feb 14, 2023

Japan rolls out 'humble and lovable' delivery robots

From April, revised traffic laws will allow self-driving delivery robots to navigate streets across the country.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 14, 2023

Silicon Valley talent is helping grow Vietnam's startup hub

Coders are moving to the nation’s commercial hub of Ho Chi Minh City to launch startups focused on everything from insomnia to microloans.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Okinawa
Feb 13, 2023

As Japan considers easing virus guidance, Okinawan children fear unmasked life

Even among adults, opinions are divided on how society should handle the coronavirus, including on the issue of whether or not to remove masks — which only adds to unease for children.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Feb 13, 2023

Mikaela Shiffrin leads call for winter sports sustainability change

U.S. star Mikaela Shiffrin led calls for ski chiefs to change their approach to sustainability in a bid to make winter sports justifiable to a public ever more aware of climate change.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 13, 2023

The climate pledges of leading global companies don’t add up

Regulations governing sustainability and sustainability claims remain underdeveloped and vary vastly from place to place.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 11, 2023

Female-led startups pitch for bigger slice of scarce funding

The past year was difficult for almost anyone looking to raise money amid rising inflation, but it was already almost impossible for small companies founded by women.
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 11, 2023

Uprooted: Amazonian Siekopai people battle for return to ancestral land

Displaced by decades of war, the Siekopai Indigenous peoples eke out a living doing odd jobs as they fight to return to their home in the Amazon rainforest.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 10, 2023

SMBC to end corporate finance for coal mining by 2040, but trade finance remains

Critics have previously pointed to the ambiguity on corporate financing, potentially providing a loophole for banks lending to pure-play coal miners.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 9, 2023

Nissan keeps annual profit forecasts and cuts unit sales target

The Japanese auto giant said it still expects a net profit of ¥155 billion ($1.2 billion) in the 2022-23 financial year, and also left its operating income outlook unchanged.
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 9, 2023

Glacier lakes swollen by global warming threaten millions

Earth's average surface temperature has risen nearly 1.2 degrees Celsius since preindustrial times, but high-mountain regions around the world have warmed at twice that pace.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 9, 2023

SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son may have one big bet left

The Vision Funds are almost exhausted, so the company will be looking for something else to buy in order to boost returns.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 9, 2023

Everyone loses in a fractured world

The dominance of national-security hawks distorts economic policy and impedes the delivery of global public goods — and could lead to an all-out global conflict.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 9, 2023

The world's largest carbon capture plant gets a second chance in Texas

Carbon capture is seen by some as a vital tool to limiting global warming because it enables the use of fossil fuels while removing their emissions.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Markets
Feb 9, 2023

Japan investors sold record foreign debt in 2022 as hedging costs rose

Money managers in the nation cut holdings of foreign fixed-income securities by ¥23.8 trillion over the period, an all-time high in data since 1996.
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 9, 2023

Tree study shows how three years of drought may have doomed ancient empires

'The climate changes that are likely to occur for us in the next century will be much more severe than those the Hittites experienced,' one of the co-authors noted.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 9, 2023

Funds that inflate green credentials face strict new rules in Japan

Under the FSA’s new guidelines, only funds that consider environmental, social and governance as a 'key factor” when choosing investments can be marketed as such.
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 9, 2023

A fifth of the world’s species-rich wetlands have been destroyed

Wetlands provide critical and historically under-recognized benefits to humanity, including flood defense, water storage and biodiversity protection.
Japan Times
PODCAST / deep dive
Feb 8, 2023

I can't believe it's not meat! Is lab-grown beef on Japanese menus?

This week, Oscar Boyd gives us a review of his cultured chicken meal and runs down the environmental implications of such an endeavor, while Tomoko Otake gets us caught up on where Japan stands in the great race to replicate beef.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health / FOCUS
Feb 8, 2023

With cash infusion, developing nations boost sun-dimming research

The use of 'solar geoengineering' to slow global warming may be a necessary risk, but some have said that considering its use is akin to 'walking on a field of landmines.”
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 8, 2023

Solar panels are the U.S. Midwest’s new cash crop as green energy booms

Ohio and Indiana — two Republican-led U.S. states long dependent on coal power — are set to see major expansion of solar farms.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 7, 2023

Nintendo cuts outlook on Switch but raises salaries as Japan inflation climbs

Nintendo has sat out the rally in tech stocks this year and may remain stuck in the doldrums until it unveils a successor to its Switch game console.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 6, 2023

Adani’s crisis points to big risk in India's net-zero plan

Adani’s rapid downfall may undermine investor confidence in India more broadly, threatening to curb capital flows into the nation for green financing.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 6, 2023

France seeks strategy as nuclear waste site risks saturation point

While more nuclear energy can help France and other countries reduce planet-warming emissions, environmental campaigners say it replaces one problem with another.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 6, 2023

Former Japanese inmate talks of corruption at Philippine detention center

'It was a place where money was everything,' said Romi Hoshino, former operator of pirate website Mangamura.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Feb 5, 2023

The Winter Olympics have a climate problem. Could Sapporo be part of the solution?

Sapporo is touting a study showing that among all past hosts, it will be the most climate resilient as the planet warms. But residents are less than enthusiastic about hosting.
Japan Times
LIFE
Feb 5, 2023

More than 20 years spent on the fight against gum

Seiichi Miyamoto's company receives orders from local governments and shopping districts to clean up towns and cities.
Japan Times
WORLD / FOCUS
Feb 5, 2023

Germany's Olaf Scholz is learning that it’s not easy going green

Under the leader's stewardship, German industry is struggling to find new technologies and trade partners to provide the backbone for the coming green transformation.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Feb 4, 2023

Concrete traps carbon dioxide soaked from air in climate-friendly test

The joint effort was the first time that carbon dioxide absorbed from the atmosphere using such Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology had been secured in concrete.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Feb 4, 2023

'Beijing’s Global Media Offensive': China's fight to win influence around the world

Author Joshua Kurlantzick's up-to-date and rigorously footnoted new book details the country's efforts to write its own narrative and sway minds through media.

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