Search - environment

 
 
EDITORIALS
Mar 17, 2014

New burden for Minamata victims

The Environment Ministry appears to have relaxed conditions for the official recognition of Minamata disease victims, but the attached record-keeping requirements make it unlikely that many more people will receive financial relief.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 1, 2012

Innovation, marketing by the book doesn't hold in globalized world

Creativity and innovation hold the key to being competitive in a global environment, but what does it really take for a company to recruit or build innovative talent?
JAPAN / G8 COUNTDOWN
May 24, 2008

Environment summit's elusive dream: Consensus

KOBE — Environment ministers from the Group of Eight industrialized nations and 10 other countries, including China and India, will gather Saturday in Kobe for a three-day summit on climate change.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jan 25, 2006

Saving our environment one step at a time

Having ended 2005 with a rant (see below), let me begin 2006 on a more positive note by introducing some valuable environmental education resources.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Aug 12, 2004

Environment groups who do it in the streets

Hester Van Hooven Ward is pretty hard to miss when she greets you on the street with a wave and a big smile, then launches into her "rap": "Hi! How are you? Do you have a minute for the environment today?" she calls out to strangers.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 24, 2003

Nissan tries to hone the right environment

Just like corporate employees, young people need to be given a proper environment so they can realize their potential, Nissan Motor Co. President Carlos Ghosn said Monday at a ceremony for scholarship recipients.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Feb 27, 2003

Environment Bushwhack

U.S. Civil War General William Sherman is credited with uttering the sage words, "War is hell." War is hell on the environment as well, and U.S. President George W. Bush's "War on Terror" is no exception. Ironically, the environment being degraded is America's own.
JAPAN
Jun 23, 2001

Environment team wins Cabinet OK

Environment Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi on Friday won Cabinet endorsement for a team to combat global warming, including a new vice ministerial post to strengthen negotiating power in international climate-change talks.
JAPAN
Nov 23, 2000

Staff shortage hits local environment plans

While plans to preserve the environment have been penned by all prefectures and designated cities, as well as by more than 200 municipalities, their implementation is being handicapped by a lack of action and manpower, according to the results of a survey released Wednesday.
EDITORIALS
Jun 8, 2000

Taxing time for the environment

A report recently released by the Environment Agency is certain to give further impetus to the debate on environmental taxation. The report, compiled by an expert panel that studies economic methods of implementing environmental policy, says the so-called carbon tax is effective in reducing carbon dioxide...
JAPAN
May 3, 1999

Financial sector new link in environment chain

Staff writer
JAPAN
Jan 19, 1999

Environment Agency urges restoration of wetlands, coast

Coastal areas and wetlands around the Seto Inland Sea should be restored and land reclamation projects strictly controlled to protect remaining natural areas, an Environment Agency advisory group said in a report released Tuesday.
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Apr 17, 2023

G7 ministers promise more green energy use, but timeline on coal exit elusive

Japan’s position, adopted by the country's ministers, is that each country has its own economic energy situation that requires different methods to achieve carbon neutrality.
JAPAN
Apr 12, 2023

Yellow sand sweeps into Japan as government agencies urge caution

Dust has begun to cover areas from Hokkaido to northern Kyushu, and if yellow sand is observed in Tokyo, it would be the capital’s first in 16 years for the month of April.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / Longform
Mar 6, 2023

Can urban farming play a key role in food security?

From small orchards to high-tech vertical farming, producing food in Japan's urban areas could help address key social and environmental issues.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Dec 26, 2022

Local governments and businesses in Japan promote food drives

The programs are attracting attention not only as a means of support for the poor, but also as a measure to reduce food waste.
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 20, 2022

How Chinese diplomacy helped seal historic COP15 biodiversity deal

Beijing, which held the presidency of the talks, at first appeared to have a hands-off approach.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Sep 11, 2022

Yuka Natori: ‘Starting a climate initiative in your own community would be great’

Yuka Natori helped found the group Media Is Hope as way to get Japan's mainstream media caught up with the global conversation on climate issues.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 19, 2022

'Shocking' report lists devastation to Australia wildlife

Australia's 2019-2020 'Black Summer' bush fires burned more than 8 million hectares of native vegetation and killed or displaced 1 billion to 3 billion animals.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 16, 2022

God's will or ecological disaster? Mexico takes aim at Mennonite deforestation

In Campeche, the Mennonites say that expanding farms to provide a simple life for their families is the will of God. In the eyes of ecologists, the farms are an environmental disaster.
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 14, 2022

Rare bird and forest protectors clash with India's clean energy vision

While government authorities argue that shifting India away from fossil fuels is a top priority, environmentalists and communities say nature is taking collateral damage.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Aug 27, 2023

More tests show radiation levels of Fukushima seawater remain below limits

Tokyo hopes what it says is a transparent release of data will serve as a strong rebuttal to claims by Beijing that the discharge is dangerous.
Serhiy Tsapok (left) and a firefighter extinguish the remains of a fire in a forest near Yarova, Sviati Hory National Park, Donetsk region, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, July 29.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Oct 11, 2024

Ukraine's vast forests devastated in hellscape of war

Both Russian and Ukrainian armies blast thousands of shells at each other every day, shredding the earth in grinding combat that echoes World War I.
Asian seabass are bred at the Songkhla Coastal Aquaculture Technology and Innovation Research and Development Center in southern Thailand.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability / OUR PLANET
Feb 23, 2025

Japan looks to save seafood and seaweed farming from warming oceans

Projects at home and in Thailand are seeking to address challenges stemming from climate change as well as sustainability concerns.
Thames Water's Beddington Sewage Treatment Works near Croydon, south London, on Friday. Thames Water, and other British water companies privatized since 1989, are under fire for allowing the discharge of large quantities of sewage into rivers and the sea.
ENVIRONMENT
Mar 15, 2025

A stain on Britain: Sewage contaminates its waterways and seas

Failings with the most basic services in British society, such as water and sewage, have been harming the broader U.K. economy.
An aerial view of Thames Water's Beddington Sewage Treatment Works near Croydon, south London on Friday. Thames Water — and other British water companies privatized since 1989 — are under fire for allowing the discharge of large quantities of sewage into rivers and the sea.
WORLD / Science & Health
Mar 17, 2025

A stain on Britain: Sewage contaminates its waterways and seas

The pollution affects the seafood and tourism industries, while delaying construction projects and hampering the economy.
A coral reef in Okinawa in July 2022. Some jurisdictions around the world have moved to ban certain sunscreens in a bid to protect coral reefs, but some say the impact on reefs is far from clear.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife / OUR PLANET
Jul 20, 2025

Japan’s top brands get tied up in the great sunscreen debate

The debate over the damage sunscreens cause to the marine environment is heating up as some regions ban certain chemical ingredients.

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear