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August 16, 2025
 

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ANIMALS

While a trained beekeeper can quickly look at frames in a hive assess their health, AI can do it even faster.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Jun 24, 2025
How robotic hives and AI are lowering the risk of bee colony collapse
Beewise’s units help cut down on losses by providing a near-constant stream of information on colony health in real time and give beekeepers the ability to respond.
Poultry serum samples are tested for antibodies to the avian influenza virus in Campinas, Brazil, in 2023.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 19, 2025
Geography helps shield Brazil from U.S.-style bird flu epidemic, for now
Brazil's vast and diverse geography may be keeping migratory birds away from poultry farms in the country's interior.
A rescued baby orangutan rests in a basket in Bangkok on May 14.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Jun 11, 2025
Snakes on a plane highlight Thailand-India wildlife trafficking, NGO reports
Many of the animals seized are alive, showing demand for exotic pets is driving the smuggling trade, the nongovernmental organization said.
The Kumamoto Municipal Government building in the city of Kumamoto
JAPAN
Jun 4, 2025
Around 100 dead cats found at woman's home in Japan
City officials and animal rights volunteers inspected the house twice, before launching a full search and rescue mission.
The white-tailed eagle's wintering grounds include Hokkaido, northern Honshu, the Russian coast, the southern Kamchatka Peninsula and the Kuril Islands.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife / Regional Voices: Hokkaido
May 26, 2025
Eagle nest discovery sparks opposition to megasolar project
Groups want to put a stop to the project near eastern Hokkaido's Kushiro Wetlands National Park.
French scientist Marie-Anne Blanchet examines bear cubs before taking tissue biopsies and blood samples from their sedated mother, in eastern Spitzbergen, in Norway's Svalbard archipelago, on April 6.
ENVIRONMENT
May 19, 2025
Polar bear biopsies shed light on Arctic pollutants
The team's findings may help explain how the bears' world is changing, and at an alarming rate.
A tricolored calico cat (left) and a tortoiseshell cat. A Japanese research team has discovered a gene that determines the fur color patterns of the two breeds of cats.
JAPAN / Science & Health
May 16, 2025
Japan team finds gene that determines calico cats' color patterns
Researchers led by Kyushu University professor Hiroyuki Sasaki found that the coloring was decided by the ARHGAP36 gene on the X chromosome.
SeaForest CEO Sam Elsom at the company's headquarters in Triabunna, Tasmania, on March 26
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
May 15, 2025
Australian seaweed farm tackles livestock burps to combat climate change
While far less abundant in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, methane is about 80 times more potent over a 20-year timescale at warming the planet.
The hermit crabs of Amami island are from a group of species designated as "national natural monuments" because of their cultural and scientific value.
JAPAN
May 8, 2025
Three arrested in Japan over suitcases stuffed with hermit crabs
The guests "had asked the hotel to watch their suitcases, and the suitcases made a rustling noise," a police official said.
Fuhin, one of the giant pandas at Adventure World in Wakayama Prefecture, when she was a baby
JAPAN
Apr 30, 2025
Chinese official positive about new giant panda contract with Japan
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said Tuesday that Beijing welcomes Japan's continued interest in international cooperation on giant panda conservation.
Giant panda Rauhin at Adventure World in Wakayama Prefecture. She and her three daughters are expected to be sent to China in June.
JAPAN
Apr 25, 2025
All four giant pandas at western Japan zoo to be sent to China
If no new additions join the zoo, Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei at Tokyo's Ueno Zoo would be the only remaining giant pandas housed in Japan.
A student in hazmat suit moves around a taxidermied giraffe at the "crime scene" set up in the warehouse of the Wildlife Forensic Academy in the Buffelsfontein Game and Nature Reserve near Cape Town, South Africa, on April 16.
WORLD / Society
Apr 22, 2025
Inside South Africa's wildlife CSI school helping to catch poachers
South Africa faces an acute poaching crisis, with more than 10,000 rhinos killed since 2007 according to the International Rhino Foundation.
With more wild bears entering human areas across Japan in recent years, the revised law is aimed at making it possible to deal with them promptly and prevent casualties.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 18, 2025
Japan enacts bill allowing urban bears to be shot
The law designates animals with a high risk of harming people as "dangerous wildlife animals" that can be shot.
Ryuji Matsumoto pats one of the sheep at his farm in the town of Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Fukushima
Apr 14, 2025
The man behind Fukushima town's 'Strawberry Sheep'
Ryuji Matsumoto, 54, incorporates dried strawberries into the feed for his sheep, which gives their meat a certain sweetness.
The Jikei University School of Medicine in Tokyo's Minato Ward. A team from the university has successfully transplanted kidneys between rat fetuses.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Apr 11, 2025
Japanese research team succeeds in fetal rat kidney transplant
The success of the team at Jikei University School of Medicine in Tokyo marks a key step toward clinical studies involving cross-species organ transplantation.
The whereabouts of a bear that attacked three people in Nagano Prefecture on Wednesday were still unknown the following day.
JAPAN
Apr 10, 2025
Authorities on alert after three injured in Nagano bear attack
Two men are believed to have sustained serious injuries, but all three victims remain conscious. The whereabouts of the bear remain unknown.
Zensho Holdings, operator of fast-food chain Sukiya, said it will close all of its stores in Japan, except for a small number in shopping centers, between Monday and Friday following recent contamination incidents.
JAPAN
Mar 30, 2025
Japan's biggest beef bowl chain Sukiya to shut nearly 2,000 stores after rat and bug contamination
As of the end of 2024, Sukiya operated 1,965 stores in Japan.
Pigeons — and their droppings — can be extremely difficult to manage once they settle in.
JAPAN / Society / FOCUS
Mar 25, 2025
A new year, a new home and new unexpected guests: pigeons
They might seem harmless at first, but their droppings pose serious health risks to humans and the birds can be extremely difficult to manage once they settle in.
Sukiya said a rodent made its way into miso soup while meals were being prepared at a branch in Tottori Prefecture on Jan. 21.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 24, 2025
Rodent found in miso soup prompts plunge in Sukiya owner’s stock
Sukiya said the animal made its way into the soup while meals were being prepared at a branch in Tottori Prefecture.
Whales sense their surroundings largely through sound and create complex vocalizations, or songs, when they’re searching for mates and food.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Mar 22, 2025
Why we should worry when whales stop singing
A new study has found that whale songs can act as a barometer for the effects of climate change on ocean ecosystems.
The indelible memory of being a part of Unit 731
Hideo Shimizu, 95, says he cannot forget seeing the prisoners' bloody wills scribbled on the walls of prison cells at Unit 731 in 1945.
Japanese star convicted of indecent assault in Hong Kong
J-pop idol Kenshin Kamimura leaves the West Kowloon Law Courts on bail in Hong Kong on Wednesday, after he was found guilty of indecent assault of a woman who worked as his interpreter at a restaurant in Mong Kok district in March this year.
Tens of thousands left stranded at Osaka Expo by train service interruption
Visitors rest inside the Osaka Expo venue early Thursday morning
Welcoming foreign residents benefits Japan, three quarters of economists say
The streets of Tokyo's Ginza district in April. The number of foreign residents in Japan hit a record high at 3.76 million as of the end of last year, comprising just over 3% of the population.
Hiker missing in Hokkaido after bear attack found dead
The Rausu mountain range at Hokkaido's Shiretoko National Park. A man in his 20s who went missing after being attacked by a bear while hiking on Mount Rausu has been found dead.
The indelible memory of being a part of Unit 731
Hideo Shimizu, 95, says he cannot forget seeing the prisoners' bloody wills scribbled on the walls of prison cells at Unit 731 in 1945.
Will Ishiba's critics be able to garner enough support for a leadership race?
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's political survival likely hinges on whether a leadership race will take place within the Liberal Democratic Party following its decision to have its election committee canvass the opinions of party members and prefectural chapters on the subject.
Hidden rosters and the legacy of Japan’s germ warfare
Katsutoshi Takegami, 77, in his storehouse attic where he discovered his father's Unit 1644 documents
Osaka Expo highlights the challenge of holding events in Japan's scorching summer
People huddle near a large fan blowing icy-cold mist at the Osaka Expo on July 12. Amid Japan's relentless summer heat, organizes have put myriad measures in place in order to keep guests safe.
At Himawari Shokudo 2, Italian food with a Japanese soul
At Himawari Shokudo 2, chef Hozumi Tanaka serves Italian-inspired fare with a focus on Toyama produce, such as this appetizer of lightly blanched "hotaru ika" (firefly squid) served atop mixed wild plants and a crepe prepared from "yamato-imo" yam.

Podcast

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

Longform

Members of the nonprofit group Japan Youth Memorial Association search for the remains of dead soldiers in a cave in Okinawa Prefecture in February.
The long search for Japan’s lost soldiers
By Tomoko Otake

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