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September 02, 2025
 

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CITIES

Suyun Ham, an engineering professor at UTA, reviews data from a recent inspection with two other researchers. Ham likens his technology to a “portable MRI,” which can detect cracks and other hidden dangers in a bridge.
ENVIRONMENT
Aug 26, 2025
Are bridges near you safe? This MRI-like scan may prevent disaster
An engineering professor from the University of Texas at Arlington is experimenting with a novel approach to inspecting bridges for heat damage.
The area around Shibuya Station in Tokyo. After the end of World War II, population concentration in the capital accelerated while other parts of Japan continue to see population declines.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Aug 18, 2025
80 years on: Tokyo prospers while local revitalization still insufficient
Experts stress the importance of setting up a system in which industrial resources are circulated locally in order to create a sustainable society.
One of Swiss startup Enerdrape’s energy-harvesting panels is seen in this screenshot taken from video posted to the firm's YouTube account.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Aug 17, 2025
A startup is tapping underground parking garages for clean energy
Globally, heating accounts for nearly half of all energy consumption. That could make decarbonizing it a half-trillion-dollar market.
Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, promises a rent freeze that’s easy to deliver but it remains to be seen if it will solve the city’s deeper housing problems.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 28, 2025
Freezing rent is easy. Making NYC housing affordable isn’t.
Zohran Mamdani’s campaign pledge would be simple to put into effect but wouldn’t do much to solve the underlying problem.
London’s worsening disorder — from soaring petty crime to reckless delivery riders and rising drug use — reflects a decades-old pattern of authorities and citizens normalizing lawlessness.
COMMENTARY
Jul 23, 2025
What turning a blind eye to deviant behavior is doing to London
The city’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, needs to take growing disorder on the streets more seriously.
The classic red brick arches of Tokyo’s first “gādo-shita,” built in 1910, are what most Japanese people think of when they think about commercial spaces under elevated railways.
LIFE / Style & Design / Longform
Jun 16, 2025
Revitalizing the space under Tokyo’s train tracks
Rail underpasses in big cities are being transformed into vibrant spaces for artisans, foodies and travelers — without erasing their past.
Mateusz Urbanowicz’s recent book “Imaginary Storefronts” collects his illustrations of the mundane Japanese street scenes that have given him immense inspiration.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
May 31, 2025
Mateusz Urbanowicz: ‘Miyazaki inspired me to put the audience first’
The Polish artist and animator talks about how he came to Japan and the inspiration he draws from ordinary streets and storefronts.
Construction equipment sits idle in a park near Shiba Toshogu shrine in Tokyo's Minato Ward. While Japan has a history of treating its trees with reverence, green coverage is said to be lacking in most of the major cities.
ENVIRONMENT / Earth science / Longform
May 26, 2025
Do Japan's trees no longer occupy the sacred space they used to?
Trees have long occupied a sacred place in Japanese culture. In the fast pace of the 21st century, however, they're increasingly losing out to progress.
A person walks with a dog through the "micro-forest" park created by the Athens City Council near Alepotrypa Park in downtown Athens, Greece, on March 31.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Apr 22, 2025
Tentative tree planting 'decades overdue' in sweltering Athens
Planting vegetation is crucial to help cities beat the heat, scientists say, as climate change stokes hotter and more intense heatwaves.
A vandalized sign indicating an ultralow emission zone in west London.
ENVIRONMENT
Apr 10, 2025
Clean streets versus business woes: Pollution charge divides Londoners
The plan in London requires motorists to switch to low-emission vehicles or face a daily charge.
Pedestrians commute through Shibuya Station in central Tokyo, an area that is almost never devoid of people.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Mar 3, 2025
As the rest of Japan shrinks, Tokyo grows
Women and young people are leading a migratory wave that the government is struggling to halt.
Tsuyoshi Mizukoshi, owner of a pub in Nishiogi’s commercial area, is a community organizer who is rallying local residents against the road development plan.
COMMUNITY / Issues
Mar 3, 2025
Redevelopment and resistance in historic Nishiogikubo
Stakeholders in Suginami Ward have been fighting against a road development plan for some years — but economic forces are already transforming the neighborhood.
A tourist gazes out over the sea from the top of a dune near Chabahar in Iran's southern Sistan-Baluchistan province in 2018. Faced with myriad problems including gridlocked traffic and a sinking earth surface in its current capital, Iran is considering a drastic solution: moving it to an altogether different location in Makran on the Gulf of Oman.
WORLD
Feb 18, 2025
Iran mulls moving capital to 'lost paradise' on southern coast
Tehran is experiencing traffic snarls, water shortages, resource mismanagement, extreme air pollution and subsidence.
Tokyo saw a net population inflow of 79,285 in 2024, up 11,000 from the previous year and returning to prepandemic levels.
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2025
Tokyo area's net population inflow accelerates in 2024
The government aims to reverse the trend in fiscal 2027 to address the issue of overconcentration in the Tokyo area.
Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda talks about the firm's Woven City smart town during the 2025 CES event in Las Vegas on Monday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 7, 2025
Toyota aims to open its futuristic city near Mount Fuji this year
The initial residents of Woven City will be composed mostly of the carmaker’s own employees and their families.
A man pushes a cart along Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles
WORLD / Society
Jan 4, 2025
Ahead of Trump term, U.S. cities grapple with homelessness
The crisis worsened with the end of pandemic-related aid, and are driven by a lack of affordable housing, as well as inflation and low wages.
Residential buildings under construction at China Evergrande Group's Riverside Palace development in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, China, in November 2023
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Dec 20, 2024
China’s economic rebound hangs on the fate of its richest cities
Preserving earning power in China was given fresh urgency as U.S. Presidential-elect Donald Trump says he will choke off critical Chinese exports.
The silhouettes of Mount Fuji, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building and Shinjuku skyscrapers are seen during sunset in Tokyo in November.
JAPAN / Society
Dec 11, 2024
Tokyo remains third in global city index for ninth consecutive year
While Tokyo notched improvements in research and development, cultural interaction, livability, and accessibility, its score declined in the economy category.
A man searches through the rubble of a wrecked house in the Turkish town of Cankiri after a strong earthquake hit central Turkey in June 2000.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 13, 2024
Earthquakes, hurricanes and other disasters will shape our future cities
The progress of Antakya’s renewal bears watching. However it proceeds, there will be lessons to learn.
Construction at Michaelerplatz in Vienna, Austria, in July
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Oct 7, 2024
Europe’s urban dilemma: Saving the past from a warming future
European cities face a tough choice: adapt to rising heat or preserve historical landmarks.
‘Mount Fuji Lawson’ becomes a symbol of Japan’s overtourism problem
A couple poses for a wedding photo in front of a Lawson in the town of Kawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, on Aug. 25.
Woman dies after possible knife attack in Setagaya
Police investigate the scene where a woman was found bleeding on a street in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward on Monday.
Japan to launch broad review of immigration policies amid rise in foreign nationals
Foreign tourists at Narita Airport in June. A report released Friday stresses that Japan is at a turning point and that current ad-hoc measures on immigration are no longer sufficient.
More sweltering days forecast for September after hottest summer on record
By the end of August, 8,341 people had been transported by ambulance for heatstroke in Tokyo alone.
How Tokyo's Ueno Zoo helps their animals cope with extreme heat
A polar bear at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo on Thursday. The Arctic animals are among the most vulnerable species to Japan's scorching summer heat and zookeepers have to take a number of precautions in order to keep them safe.
‘Mount Fuji Lawson’ becomes a symbol of Japan’s overtourism problem
A couple poses for a wedding photo in front of a Lawson in the town of Kawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, on Aug. 25.
How Tokyo's Ueno Zoo helps their animals cope with extreme heat
A polar bear at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo on Thursday. The Arctic animals are among the most vulnerable species to Japan's scorching summer heat and zookeepers have to take a number of precautions in order to keep them safe.
Japan is warming up to tattoos — just not permanent ones
Tattoos have a complex history in Japan, but new types of temporary ink are letting locals curious about body art experiment without the commitment.
Japan to launch broad review of immigration policies amid rise in foreign nationals
Foreign tourists at Narita Airport in June. A report released Friday stresses that Japan is at a turning point and that current ad-hoc measures on immigration are no longer sufficient.
Japan looks to build drone ‘shield’ in record defense budget request
A group of Ground Self-Defense Force service members discuss drone operations and capabilities at a joint static display during the Orient Shield 24 opening ceremony at the Yausubetsu Training Area in Hokkaido in July last year.

Podcast

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

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

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Maruhachi never sleeps in quest for better futons

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