Search - environment

 
 
An employee of Kyowa Industrial walks next to the company's factory in Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture, in April.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 24, 2025

Tariff crossfire hits Toyota, Nissan and Ford suppliers in Japan

Thousands of small and midsize makers of auto parts in Japan, including suppliers for Toyota and Nissan, are facing a crisis as U.S. tariffs threaten their bottom lines.
Shinjiro Koizumi, Japan's newly appointed agriculture minister, arrives at the ministry building in Tokyo on Wednesday. He replaced Taku Eto, who quit after saying he’s never needed to buy rice, a comment that angered many people.
EDITORIALS
May 23, 2025

Rice price uproar intensifies ruling party's election fears

When the remarks triggered a predictable and understandable backlash, Eto explained that he was trying to make a joke.
Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa (right) meets with Tom Barrack, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey and a special envoy to Syria, in Istanbul on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
May 25, 2025

Syria reboots interior ministry as Damascus seeks to reassure West

Keen to reboot and rebuild nearly 14 years after a devastating civil war began, the new authorities have hailed Washington's lifting of U.S. sanctions.
Shu Yamamoto runs a ramen shop in the city of Hiroshima by renting a barbecue restaurant during its off hours.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Hiroshima
May 26, 2025

Off-hours property rentals take off in Hiroshima

The renter can cut down on startup costs for their business while the owner can earn extra income, though it means sharing responsibilities.
Donald Trump’s approval of Nippon Steel’s U.S. Steel partnership signals a key step in U.S.-Japan economic and security cooperation amid rising competition with China.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 27, 2025

Nippon Steel partnership go-ahead boosts U.S.-Japan cooperation

The move is a sharp departure from Trump’s earlier, politically motivated stance opposing foreign ownership of U.S. Steel.
Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton (right) shoots a three-point basket over Knicks guard Jalen Brunson during the fourth quarter of Game 4 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on Tuesday.
BASKETBALL / NBA
May 28, 2025

Pacers beat Knicks to move one win away from NBA Finals

Indiana, which blew a 20-point lead in a Game 3 home loss, seized a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference Finals with the home triumph.
Evacuees stand in line to receive water from a water tank car at an evacuation center in the aftermath of an earthquake, in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Jan. 4, 2024.
JAPAN
May 28, 2025

Japan enacts legislation aiming to strengthen disaster preparedness

The legislation was compiled based on lessons learned from the Noto Peninsula earthquake in January 2024.
Closed-circuit television cameras in a New Delhi street in on May 21. Global makers of surveillance cameras have clashed with Indian regulators over new rules that require them to submit materials for assessment in government labs, driven in part by alarm about China's capabilities.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 28, 2025

India's alarm over Chinese surveillance prompts crackdown on cameras

Rejecting the request from manufacturers for a delay, India said its policy "addresses a genuine security issue" and must be enforced.
A few remaining houses are seen after a massive rock and ice slide covered most of the village of Blatten, Switzerland, on Thursday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
May 30, 2025

Swiss residents in shock after glacier debris buries village

Scientists suspect the deluge is a dramatic example of climate change's impact on the Alps.
The Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 30, 2025

Trump aims at Chinese students and tech in threat to truce with Xi

Just weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump declared a "total reset” with China following a trade truce in Geneva, tensions are rising again between the world’s biggest economies.
Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns dunks during his team's win over the Pacers in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals in New York on Wednesday.
BASKETBALL / NBA
May 30, 2025

Knicks rout Pacers to keep season alive and force Game 6

Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns combined for 56 points in New York's win.
Nippon Steel said it would build a new electric arc furnace — which uses scrap metal as a raw material — at its Kyushu works, while expanding and restarting capacity at two other sites.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 30, 2025

Nippon Steel plans $6 billion investment in its Japanese mills

The spending in Japan comes at a critical juncture for the firm’s 17-month push to acquire U.S. Steel.
Mako Komuro (right), the eldest daughter of Crown Prince Akishino and Crown Princess Kiko, left the Imperial Family after marrying Kei Komuro, a former schoolmate at International Christian University in Tokyo, in October 2021.
JAPAN
May 30, 2025

Former Japanese princess Mako gives birth to first child

Mako, 33, left the Imperial Family after marrying Kei Komuro, 33, a former schoolmate at International Christian University in Tokyo, in October 2021.
South Korea will hold its next presidential election on Tuesday. Whoever wins will have to confront numerous intertwined challenges head-on.
COMMENTARY / World
May 30, 2025

South Korea faces a triple challenge ahead of its election

South Korea will hold its next presidential election on Tuesday. Whoever wins will have to confront numerous intertwined challenges head-on.
Tugboats assist a liquified natural gas tanker as it docks at a port in Yantai, China, in February. In 2021, China became the largest importer of LNG, and as of this year, China now has the most long-term LNG contracts.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / OUR PLANET
Jun 1, 2025

China is eroding Japan's LNG dominance. How does that affect Japanese buyers?

Japanese companies have long held the leading position in the buying and trading of one of the world's key energy sources, but that era of hegemony has come to an end.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth arrives for a trilateral meeting between Japan, the U.S. and Australia at the Shangri-La Dialogue security summit in Singapore on Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jun 1, 2025

Hegseth to prioritize China and more allied spending in Asia — but questions remain

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made a clear statement of the United States' commitment to the region, but getting allies to spend more on their defense will be an uphill battle.
People watch the sunset in Ronda, southern Spain, on Thursday as the country faces its first heatwave of the season.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jun 2, 2025

Half the world has faced an extra month of extreme heat, study finds

The island of Aruba was the worst affected, recording 187 extreme heat days in a one-year period — 45 more than expected in a world without climate change.
The small village of Blatten in the Swiss Alps was destroyed by a landslide after part of a glacier collapsed last week.
ENVIRONMENT / Earth science
Jun 2, 2025

How Switzerland's Birch glacier collapsed

There are strong theories on the causes, and to what degree it is linked to climate change — but these are yet to be confirmed by scientific analysis.
The Eagle S oil tanker is seen near a Finnish border guard ship and tugboat off the Porkkalanniemi Peninsula in the Gulf of Finland in December. Finland seized the Russian-linked vessel on suspicion it damaged undersea cables amid growing concerns over sanctions evasion and maritime security.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 2, 2025

Braving the storm: It’s time to board Russia’s shadow fleet

European sanctions against the Kremlin’s oil vessels are futile without actual enforcement.
Zheng Yanxiong, former director of China's Hong Kong Liaison Office, speaks during the National Security Education Day opening ceremony in Hong Kong on April 15, 2024.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 3, 2025

Hong Kong leader calls sudden removal of top China official 'normal'

No explanation by Beijing or Chinese state media was given for the change.
TSMC’s plan to build a second factory in Kumamoto Prefecture is key to Japan’s ambitions to regain leadership in semiconductors.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 4, 2025

TSMC flags delays in Japan expansion while U.S. plans advance

The sudden influx of workers from TSMC’s first plant is already bogging down rural infrastructure in Japan.
South Korean President Lee Jae-myung waves with his his wife, Kim Hye-gyeong, following his inauguration ceremony at the National Assembly in Seoul on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jun 4, 2025

South Korea’s Lee pledges to heal deep wounds as ‘president for everyone’

Lee Jae-myung, in his inauguration speech, said his government would continue his predecessor’s policy of strengthening cooperation with Japan.
The planned wheelchair basketball venue for the Los Angeles 2028 Paralympic Games is seen in a digital artist's rendering released on Tuesday.
PARALYMPICS
Jun 4, 2025

LA28 unveils venue plan for largest ever Paralympics

The Paralympics will seek to take advantage of the city's vast network of existing sports venues when it hosts the event for the first time.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba  addresses a meeting held at the Prime Minister's Office on Tuesday to discuss enhancing Japan's international competitiveness in the field of intellectual property.
JAPAN
Jun 4, 2025

Government adopts new intellectual property program to enhance competitiveness

The government aims to raise the country's ranking in the World Intellectual Property Organization's annual Global Innovation Index to fourth or higher by 2035.
The scene where a crumbling glacier partially collapsed and tumbled, at the village of Blatten, Switzerland, on Monday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jun 4, 2025

Swiss glacier collapse is a lesson on climate disaster management

The collapse of the glacier in the Swiss Alps was an expected disaster. When the first signs of instability started to appear, the town was evacuated.
French President Emmanuel Macron gives the keynote address at the Shangri-La Dialogue summit in Singapore on Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 4, 2025

The 'Macron Doctrine' goes to Asia: Autonomy with partners, steady on China

Macron affirmed that "France is a friend and ally of the United States, and a friend that cooperates — even if we sometimes disagree and compete — with China”.
Solar panels at an industrial complex in Rajasthan, India, are an example of India-Japan renewable energy cooperation. The two countries can strengthen their ties by co-developing green and advanced technologies, solar energy among them.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 4, 2025

The ground is fertile for Japan-India green economy partnerships

Japan and India can build on their long-standing relationship to spearhead the development of green and advanced technologies such as renewable energy and chips.
Members of a group working for the reconstruction of the Machinomachi district of Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, attend training for the opening of a temporary disaster broadcasting station, in Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture, on May 16.
JAPAN / Society
Jun 4, 2025

Quake-hit residents eyeing reconstruction through power of radio

A group of people, mainly residents of Wajima's Machinomachi district, are preparing to open a full scale emergency broadcasting FM radio station in mid-June.
Smoke rises from a fire aboard the cargo vessel Morning Midas as seen from a U.S. Coast Guard C-130J Super Hercules, approximately 480 kilometers south of Adak, Alaska, on Tuesday. The ship's cargo consists of around 3,000 cars, including 800 electric vehicles.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 5, 2025

Ship carrying EVs abandoned in Pacific after catching fire

The Morning Midas' cargo consists of about 3,000 cars, including 800 electric vehicles.
The election of Lee Jae-myung signals South Korea’s leftward shift on energy policy, but despite his ambitious renewable plans, deep-rooted regulatory, financial and geographic challenges threaten to stall progress unless reforms are swift and systemic.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 5, 2025

South Korea's new president has a chance to clean up

Years of inertia and obstruction of the transition have left the country with a system plagued by high costs and the lowest renewable penetration among developed economies.

Longform

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic