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July 15, 2025
 

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BIODIVERSITY

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.
Keen to end its reliance on rice imports, Indonesia wants to plant vast tracts of the crop, along with sugar cane for biofuel, in the restive eastern region of Papua. But environmentalists warn it could become the world's largest deforestation project, threatening endangered species and Jakarta's climate commitments.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Apr 22, 2025
Indonesia food plan risks 'world's largest' deforestation
Deforestation linked to the plan is already underway.
The Environment Ministry has removed more than 200 species from its red list of endangered plants and fungi, with the removal largely reflecting a recovery of populations. For instance, the Cypripedium macranthos var. rebunense, which grows on Rebun Island in Hokkaido, has been moved to the "near threatened" category.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Mar 18, 2025
Japan removes 207 species from red list of endangered plants and fungi
The decrease largely reflects the recovery of populations, though 57 species were recognized as extinct.
Instead of spending billions to resurrect woolly mammoths, we could focus on preserving endangered species, saving ecosystems, and securing biodiversity for the future.
COMMENTARY
Mar 17, 2025
Got $10 billion? Don’t blow it cloning a woolly mammoth.
Colossal Biosciences, a Dallas-based biotechnology and genetic engineering startup valued at $10 billion, has raised $435 million to "de-extinct” the woolly mammoth.
Bleached and dead coral around Lizard Island on the Great Barrier Reef, located 270 kilometers north of the city of Cairns, Australia, on April 5, 2024
ENVIRONMENT / Earth science
Mar 17, 2025
From oil spills to new species: How tech reveals the ocean
New technologies are helping to reveal hidden oil spills, speed up the discovery of new species and uncover the impact of light pollution.
A Red Knot (left) and a Ruddy Turnstone gather with other shorebirds to feed on Atlantic horseshoe eggs along a beach in Little Creek, Delaware.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Mar 14, 2025
Many U.S. bird species seen as reaching population 'tipping point'
A report found that avian populations are decreasing in almost every habitat, including grasslands and arid regions.
A monarch butterfly is seen at an enclosure at Boone Hall Plantation and Gardens in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, in August 2019.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Mar 7, 2025
Butterfly populations plummet by 22% in U.S. since turn of century
Studies in some other countries have documented declines at roughly the same rate as in the U.S. data.
A government-hired hunter holds up a captured iguana in Pingtung County, Taiwan, on Feb. 10. Taiwan's iguana population has exploded since the spikey-backed giant lizards were introduced more than 20 years ago as exotic pets. Many escaped or were dumped by their owners and have bred rapidly in the warm climate of southern Taiwan, invading neighborhoods and ravaging farmers' crops.
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 17, 2025
Taiwan bounty hunters kill invading iguanas as numbers soar
Taiwan began culling iguanas nearly 10 years ago and this year's target has been set at more than 100,000.
Sea turtles in Amami Oshima, Kagoshima Prefecture. Their nesting activity has continued to decline in recent years.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jan 30, 2025
Amami Oshima sea turtle nesting declines to second-lowest level
Scientists believe declining populations may be a key factor and have warned that a long-term analysis is needed to assess the situation.
African tiger fish swim in the Okavango river in Botswana.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Jan 13, 2025
Study documents extinction threats to world's freshwater species
Threats to such species include pollution, dams and water extraction, agriculture and invasive species.
Colombian Environment Minister and COP16 President, Susana Muhamad, attends the last plenary session of the COP16 Summit in Cali, Colombia, on Saturday.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Nov 4, 2024
U.N. nature summit ends in limbo as countries spar over funding
Notwithstanding the last-minute drama, the summit did achieve some of its goals.
David Cooper (left), executive secretary of COP16, Colombian Environment Minister and COP16 President Susana Muhamad (center), and Astrid Schomaker, secretary of COP16, attend the closing session of the conference in Cali, Colombia, on Saturday.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Nov 3, 2024
U.N. talks on saving nature stumble on finance hurdle
COP16 was suspended after negotiations ran nearly 12 hours longer than planned and delegates started leaving.
The closing session of the United Nations' COP16 summit in Cali, Colombia, on Friday
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Nov 2, 2024
Talks on halting nature loss run into extra time in Colombia
A closing plenary session started more than four hours late as groups of negotiators huddled behind closed doors seeking to iron out their differences.
Akira Oishi (left) and Shinichi Okanobori have taken on the responsibility of surveying the flora and fauna of Mount Tenran and Mount Tonosu in Saitama Prefecture.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife / Longform
Nov 2, 2024
Inside Japan's 100-year project to monitor its deteriorating biodiversity
With researchers and an army of volunteers on its side, the Monitoring Sites 1,000 project aims to bring attention to our fragile ecosystems.
Bleached corals in Koh Mak, Thailand, on May 8
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Oct 28, 2024
Earth's biodiversity crisis in numbers
The COP16 biodiversity summit in Cali, Colombia, enters its second week to assess progress toward halting and reversing nature's destruction by 2030.
Andrea Galeano, head of amphibian and reptile collections at the Alexander von Humboldt Biological Resources Research Institute, holds an Atelopus marinkellei frog captured during the Humboldt Institute's expeditions, in Villa de Leyva, Colombia, on Oct. 11.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Oct 28, 2024
Colombia's peace opened wildlife to discovery, but new violence frustrates progress
Colombia is now the world's most dangerous place for environmentalists, with 79 killed last year — the most ever in one country in a single year.
Coral growing off Indonesia's Komodo island, located in the marine rich Coral Triangle
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Oct 27, 2024
Report details fossil fuel threat to 'Amazon of the seas'
The Coral Triangle covers waters claimed by Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, the Philippines, Timor-Leste and the Solomon Islands.
A capuchin monkey at the Nupana wildlife refuge near San Jose del Guaviare, Guaviare department, Colombia, in July last year.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Oct 21, 2024
Nature ‘piracy’ and funding battles will dominate U.N. biodiversity summit
The planet is in a "critical situation,” said Susana Muhamad, COP16 president and Colombia’s environment minister.
As banking's behemoths gather at the COP16 summit, there is much talk about monetizing nature and biodiversity.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 15, 2024
Global banks want to monetize biodiversity
Opportunities to invest in funds that target biodiversity are currently limited
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 1, 2022
Hydropower is a bad bargain
There is no question that the world must cut its reliance on fossil fuels. but building more hydroelectric dams is not the way due to the environmental impact they have.
U.S. urges clarity on Japan’s role in potential war over Taiwan, report says
A Ground Self-Defense Force member conducts a military drill with an anti-ship missiles unit, at the GSDF's base on Miyako Island in Okinawa Prefecture in April 2022.
Tourists in Japan have telemedicine options before calling 119
Foreign tourists at Tsukiji Outer Market in Tokyo. More than 1 million international visitors have a medical issue in Japan every year.
Tropical Storm Nari moves northward, with possible landfall Tuesday
Tropical Storm Nari's forecast path as of Monday morning
Nissan clinches $4.5 billion bond deal after orders soar
Nissan Motor has raised $4.5 billion through a junk bond sale in U.S. dollars and euros, part of which carries a record-high coupon rate.
Students in Japan struggle with Japanese language and math sections on national exam
The correct answer rate for the Japanese language section on a national test dropped to 67.0% from 67.8% the previous year among elementary school sixth-graders.
U.S. urges clarity on Japan’s role in potential war over Taiwan, report says
A Ground Self-Defense Force member conducts a military drill with an anti-ship missiles unit, at the GSDF's base on Miyako Island in Okinawa Prefecture in April 2022.
Tourists in Japan have telemedicine options before calling 119
Foreign tourists at Tsukiji Outer Market in Tokyo. More than 1 million international visitors have a medical issue in Japan every year.
Is Japanese skin really ‘too smooth’ for Hideo Kojima’s games?
Hideo Kojima, the leading auteur in Japanese video games, has skirted controversy in the wake of the release of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
An emoji used to say it all. Now it might say too much.
Apple’s Craig Federighi shows off a set of emoji at a conference on June 13, 2016. While the small pictures have proved helpful in conveying nuance in our texts, younger people are using them less often.
‘Our ultimate goal is to save every single Japanese video game’
After nearly shuttering earlier this year, the Tokyo-based Game Preservation Society continues its work to save the early history of Japanese gaming.

Podcast

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

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan
By Megha Wadhwa

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Ishii Iron Works remakes self for workers, new energy
Ishii Iron Works remakes self for workers, new energy

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