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JAPAN
Nov 9, 2001

Alternative energy empowering consumers

With increasing demand for cost-efficient and environment-friendly energy, a growing number of hotels, hospitals and major industrial facilities are adopting cogeneration -- a system that makes more efficient use of heat and electricity generated from the same source.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 7, 2001

The boy is back in town

'Fantasma," released in 1997, was arguably the most internationally acclaimed Japanese pop record since Yellow Magic Orchestra's "Solid State Survivor." A sonic journey through musical history, from Bach to the Beach Boys, it became a fixture on critics' "best-of" lists that year its creator, Cornelius,...
JAPAN
Oct 25, 2001

Think tank calls for shift to green economy

Japan should promote "green" taxes, a new global environment policy organization and other innovative policies in the runup to Earth Summit 2002 to be held in Johannesburg next fall, a leading think tank said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Oct 10, 2001

Ministry data show air quality deteriorating

Air quality deteriorated across the nation last year in terms of particulate matter, while nitrogen dioxide levels were largely unchanged from 1999, according to Environment Ministry data released Tuesday.
JAPAN
Oct 1, 2001

Foreign sand spreading acid: experts

A yellow sand that blows into Japan from deserts in China and Mongolia each spring is carrying massive volumes of acid gases that may cause long-term soil depletion, researchers at the National Institute for Environmental Studies in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, said Sunday.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Sep 27, 2001

Counting down to environmental doom

An English friend, teasing, once asked whether Americans have a sense of irony. We certainly do, I replied, though perhaps less so than the English who, for generations, never saw the sun set and now live in darkness much of the year.
BUSINESS
Sep 27, 2001

Ministries approach budget deadline

Fiscal 2002 budgetary requests under the seven strategic areas outlined in the structural reform blueprint of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi currently total 1.38 trillion yen, the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Sep 6, 2001

Wetland conservation efforts gain ground

Wetlands have long gotten short shrift in Japan and around the world.
JAPAN
Aug 29, 2001

Isahaya reclamation project faces review

An ongoing reclamation project in Isahaya Bay, Nagasaki Prefecture, will have to be scaled down as the current plan "is unrealistic to pursue," farm minister Tsutomu Takebe said Tuesday.
CULTURE / Art
Aug 29, 2001

Crafting a way back to natural Kyushu living

An exhibition of photographs, pottery and woodwork made by participants in an nonprofit organization, Eco Link Association, with a view to increasing public awareness of environmental issues will be held Sept. 1-9 at Session House Garden in Kagurazaka, Shinjuku Ward.
COMMENTARY
Jul 30, 2001

Leaders must fight for a cleaner planet

For the past century, the world's great powers have pursued better living conditions, fought against each other and worked frantically to develop technologies useful for fighting wars, all in total disregard of the environment.
COMMUNITY
Jul 29, 2001

Every breath you take

The children were considered lucky when they were admitted a place at the popular Sashigaya public nursery in Tokyo's Bunkyo Ward. Little did their parents know what a high price their young ones might have to pay for the privilege.
CULTURE / Books
Jul 22, 2001

Thanks to 'doken kokka,' are Japan's best decades behind it?

THE EMPTINESS OF JAPANESE AFFLUENCE, by Gavan McCormack. Armonk, NY: ME Sharpe, 2001 (2nd edition), 311 pp., $27.95 (paperback). What went wrong? A decade ago few would have predicted the sustained malaise that has gripped Japan since the early 1990s.
COMMENTARY
Jul 3, 2001

Focus on function, not form

LONDON -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair's new government involves a series of changes in the responsibilities of government departments, some of which have been given new names. This will mean reorganizations of offices involving a great deal of aggravation for those concerned. It seems inevitable...
BUSINESS
Jun 28, 2001

Brave new e-world needs to review basics

David Grigsby, a professor at Clemson University in South Carolina, recalls how just a few years ago newspapers blared: "Forget what you know about business. This is a new world, an e-world. You have to relearn everything."
JAPAN
Jun 5, 2001

Poison toads threaten rare Iriomote cats

The endangered Iriomote wildcats on Okinawa Prefecture's Iriomote Island face a new threat from an invasion of poisonous marine toads, the Environment Ministry said Monday.
BUSINESS
May 28, 2001

Sea change in Japan's values

Japan is in the midst of change in its social value system.
ENVIRONMENT
May 22, 2001

China's shifting sands close in on Beijing

BEIJING -- Mother Nature has got it in for Wang Yongxian. In 1988, the farmer fled his hillside cave when flooding triggered landslides on Dragon Treasure Mountain, 70 km north of Beijing. Forced to abandon their traditional cave homes, Wang and neighbors moved down to the safety of the plain. Or so...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
May 10, 2001

What's your cerebrotype?

In "The Prince," Machiavelli set out his manifesto of duplicity and deception. His name stands for cunning, for forming alliances with those in power. The theory of Machiavellian Intelligence proposes that with the advent of social interaction, the advantage gained by manipulating others was the driving...
JAPAN
May 8, 2001

Prime minister's policy speech

The following is a provisional translation of the policy speech given Monday by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to the 151st session of the Diet:
BUSINESS
May 3, 2001

Web site clears way for waste disposal

While business chances typically arise from deregulation, some entrepreneurs find golden opportunities when regulations tighten.
JAPAN
Mar 30, 2001

Eye in the sky to help mutual green policies

Japan and China are about embark on an innovative new program using satellite-generated information updated daily to more closely integrate environment policies in Asia, according to the Environment Ministry.
JAPAN / GREENING PAINS
Mar 20, 2001

New appliance recycling plan poses question of where the buck stops

With the Home Appliances Recycling Law coming into effect April 1, Japan is taking a significant step in changing its waste disposal policy from burying discarded appliances to recycling as much as possible.
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2001

Japan braces for green mandate

Given Japan's acute shortage of landfill sites, the introduction of the Home Appliances Recycling Law on April 1 heralds a new era in the nation's efforts to promote recycling.

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