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October 10, 2025
 

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_OUR PLANET

An installation for The North Face Moon Parka, which uses a Spiber-produced protein material
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability / OUR PLANET
Aug 6, 2023
A Japanese startup is using biotech to ‘brew’ greener fashion
Fashion has a huge environmental impact, and Spiber thinks its products can help curb the industry's footprint.
An apartment building construction site in Sumida Ward, Tokyo, on July 19. Officials at Daito Trust Construction, which oversees the building project, say heatstroke dangers are a top concern given their aging workforce.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / OUR PLANET
Jul 30, 2023
In Japan, extreme heat and an aging population are a deadly mix
Heat waves combined with high humidity are weighing particularly heavily on the nation’s 36 million people age 65 and over, who are at much greater risk of severe illness and death.
Employees of a fishing net manufacturer, including Ainu Indigenous people, work at a facility in Urahoro, Hokkaido, in June.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET
Jul 23, 2023
In Hokkaido, an Ainu group's lawsuit and climate change converge on salmon fishing
The Raporo Ainu Nation in Hokkaido is fighting for its Indigenous rights to fish for salmon. But warming waters are raising questions about future fish stocks.
SOCCER / J. League
Jun 18, 2023
How Japan's top soccer league is striving to become a climate leader
As the league continues to grow, and as climate change wreaks havoc on operations, its quest to bring healthier lifestyles to the Japanese public has expanded into environmental issues.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 4, 2023
The Japanese firms and megabanks funding rainforest destruction
Comprehensive datasets reveal thousands of investments and loans made by Japan’s top lenders and investment funds that are impacting rainforests around the world.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 23, 2023
Realizing the power of bokashi and microorganisms in farming
Farmers worldwide have shown a preference for bokashi, whose top proponents include Okinawa-based researcher Teruo Higa, over traditional composting because it is much quicker to prepare.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 23, 2023
In West Africa, a ‘bokashi revolution’ takes root
A Japanese fermentation-based fertilization method is helping the region’s farmers cope with the effects of the war in Ukraine.
JAPAN
May 7, 2023
In G7 host Hiroshima, a climate disaster in all but name
A minority of Japanese are seriously worried about how warming will affect them. Recent disasters indicate they probably should be.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health
May 4, 2023
A ghostly 'fairy lantern' plant in Hyogo, back from the dead
For over two decades, scientists thought Thismia kobensis was extinct, but it's now being called a “Lazarus species” following a discovery by Kobe University researchers.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 30, 2023
How a scientific approach to urban greening could cool Japan's concrete jungles
In Tokyo, temperatures have risen by 3 C over the past 100 years, even though global temperatures have risen by only around 1 C. The solution could lie in green infrastructure.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 30, 2023
Momentum grows over a 'just' climate transition in Japan, but more action needed
The government and NGOs have begun to engage with the climate issue, but more work needs to be done to ensure workers in high-emitting industries and regions don’t get left behind.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 23, 2023
In Nagano, an excavation of Japan's ancient elephant looks to rewrite history
Researchers are looking for clues on how Naumann’s elephant went extinct, with findings having the potential to shift understanding of humankind’s presence in Japan.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health
Apr 23, 2023
How a dig for Naumann's elephant is forging Japan's future scientists
The excavations at Lake Nojiri in Nagano Prefecture are unique because, unlike most archeological digs throughout Japan, anyone is allowed to participate.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 23, 2023
Subsidence in an Indian town raises wider concern for Himalayan region
The population in the Himalayan region — which grew by 250% from 1961 to 2011 — has stretched natural resources and caused major changes in land usage.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Apr 9, 2023
Whales help store carbon. Scientists are trying to figure out just how much.
The giant creatures have a role to play in the fight against warming, and that all comes down to how they can help keep carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere in both direct and indirect ways.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 9, 2023
Could Hokkaido be the key to Japan's renewable ambitions?
As Japan looks to shift its energy mix toward cleaner sources, vast Hokkaido is drawing attention for its enormous potential for wind power.
JAPAN
Apr 2, 2023
Japan's largest lake used to be a cesspool. Now it’s a vision of a sustainable future.
Lake Biwa, Japan's largest lake, has long been a center of flourishing agriculture and cultural progress, but it's also been at the center of countless environmental crises.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 23, 2023
In Japan, cherry blossom forecasting is a big deal. Warming is making it harder.
A robust system of forecasting has built up around Japan’s sakura festivities, but climate change is disrupting the former and threatening the latter.
JAPAN
Mar 19, 2023
Weathering the storm: How Japan is factoring climate change into defense policy
Until recently, there was only limited interest in climate security within Japan’s defense circles, but that has changed as the challenges have become more evident.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 5, 2023
In the shadow of the Fukushima disaster, an unusual experiment in rewilding
Wild animals have been thriving and expanding their habitat around the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant since 2011, giving researchers a glimpse of nature’s resilience to radiation.
Typhoon Halong to cause windstorms, heavy rain and high waves on the Izu islands
Typhoon Halong is moving north near the Izu Islands, with strong winds, high waves and heavy rain expected as it passes early on Thursday, prompting warnings from the weather agency.
Japan to move toward five-year integrated bachelor's-master’s programs
Japan plans to introduce nationwide five-year bachelor's-master's programs to raise graduate school enrollment and train more highly skilled professionals amid a shrinking workforce.
Chemistry Nobel winner Kitagawa says downtime helped him think up new material
Susumu Kitagawa speaks to reporters at Kyoto University on Wednesday after receiving the news that he had been awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry the same day.
After 26 years, Komeito may be showing signs it will break with LDP
Komeito leader Tetsuo Saito (left) and LDP counterpart Sanae Takaichi meet in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Bear injures two in Japan supermarket; man killed in separate attack
A bear seen in security camera footage taken Tuesday inside a supermarket in Numata, Gunma Prefecture
With nuclear sub proposal, Japan faces array of political and tech challenges
The Jingei, the third of the Maritime Self-Defense Force's Taigei-class submarines, was commissioned in March last year. It is equipped with lithium-ion batteries, enabling it to have a longer diving time and cruising distance than older models with lead-acid batteries.
OpenAI’s Sora 2 is drowning in Japanese 'AI slop'
OpenAI has rolled out a social app powered by Sora 2, its artificial intelligence video generator, which was quickly flooded with videos featuring iconic Japanese intellectual property.
Trump has his eyes on the prize — but a Nobel win looks unlikely
A protester holds a sign with an image depicting U.S. President Donald Trump and the words "Nobel" written on it, as supporters and family members of hostages who were kidnapped during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas, demonstrate to demand the immediate end of the war and the release of all hostages, outside the U.S. Consulate in Tel Aviv, on Sept. 2.
‘Takaichi trade’ stalls as political reality calls for wait-and-see approach
Tokyo stocks staged a powerful rally on Monday. On Tuesday, they rallied again, then retreated.
How a family-run landscaper turned the Osaka Expo green
The team at Ryokukou Garden consists primarily of a single family, including Toshiki Tanisaki (second from right), who led the company's efforts at the Osaka Expo, Chikako Tanisaki (fifth from right), who performs daily maintanence at the expo, and Takeshi Tanisaki (fourth from right), who added a nursery to the family farm more than 50 years ago.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Growing families are being priced out of Tokyo’s condo market, forced to choose between downtown convenience and suburban space.
Is living in central Tokyo still affordable?
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo
Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo

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