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October 10, 2025
 

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ENERGY

High voltage transmission towers in Tokyo. Power traders are fueling a boom in weather data, which helps them to anticipate sudden price swings.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 9, 2025
Energy firms snap up weather services for trading edge in Japan
Weathernews is among a handful of companies cashing in on demand for meteorological data.
Solar panels at the Gujarat Solar Park in Gujarat, India
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Oct 8, 2025
Global renewable power output overtakes coal for the first time, report says
Curbing coal power generation is regarded as vital by most scientists to meeting global climate targets.
The Fukushima Hydrogen Energy Research Field and an adjoining solar power farm in the town of Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, in March 2021. Japan's forward-looking reforms are embedding climate risk management into the core of corporate decision-making.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 6, 2025
Japan’s blueprint for climate finance sets global standard
While no country has all the answers, Japan is demonstrating what sustained, organized action on mobilizing finance for the clean energy transition looks like in practice.
Liberal Democratic Party President Sanae Takaichi
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 6, 2025
Japan’s new leader to make nuclear center of energy strategy
A pro-nuclear stance would continue the policies of previous administrations, which have pushed to build new units and restart reactors.
Employees work on photovoltaic cell modules, used in solar panels, at a factory that produces the modules for export to the U.S. and Europe, in Lianyungang, China, on Sept. 26.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 6, 2025
China is beating the U.S. in the battle for energy export dominance
This year, more than half of China’s electric-car exports have come from outside the OECD.
Construction is underway on a Project Stargate AI infrastructure site, a collaboration between three large tech companies — OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle — in Abilene, Texas, in April.
BUSINESS
Oct 5, 2025
Trump targets deals in pharma, AI, energy and mining before midterm elections
Washington is pursuing deals across up to 30 industries, involving dozens of companies deemed critical to national or economic security.
An underwater data center being developed by Chinese maritime technology company Highlander is seen under construction at a shipyard in Nantong, in China's eastern Jingsu province.
BUSINESS / Tech
Oct 4, 2025
China trials 'energy-saving' underwater data centers
One Chinese company is planning to submerge a pod of servers in the sea off Shanghai with hopes of solving computing's energy woes.
Kuwait, despite its vast oil wealth, is facing worsening power outages due to political gridlock, underinvestment and climate pressures — highlighting the unsustainability of fossil fuel dependence in a warming world.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 3, 2025
Why the most oil-rich country can’t keep the lights on
Electricity was cut to 30 regions in April as temperatures soared and households cranked up the air conditioning.
Ukrainian servicemen observe the sky during a combat shift on the front lines in Kharkiv region, Ukraine, on Sept. 15.
WORLD
Oct 2, 2025
U.S. to give Ukraine intelligence on long-range energy targets in Russia
The U.S. is also asking NATO allies to provide similar support.
The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture. Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings hopes to restart the plant's No. 6 and No. 7 reactors which have already passed safety screenings by the Nuclear Regulation Authority.
BUSINESS
Oct 1, 2025
Japan must replace nuclear reactors for 2040 goals, group says
Several of the country's reactors will hit 60 years of operation from the 2040s, a document from the group said.
Marubeni Ennex tanks in Chiba Prefecture
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 1, 2025
Marubeni to lift Japan power business with new trading firm
The company’s power retail arm and its U.K.-based energy trading unit SmartestEnergy will each hold a 50% stake in the newly-formed venture.
Data storage tapes at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center facility in Berkeley, California. Data centers consume massive amounts of electricity and water, and that will only rise as generative artificial intelligence takes off in earnest.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / OUR PLANET
Sep 28, 2025
Japan faces fresh energy challenge as it seeks to expand power-hungry data centers
The growth could have major effects on both Japan’s standing in the fight against climate change and its industrial competitiveness on the world stage.
The Japanese government provided subsidies of up to ¥2.4 per kilowatt-hour of electricity and ¥10 per cubic meter of gas from July through September to reduce monthly fees by about ¥3,000 in total.
BUSINESS
Sep 27, 2025
Japanese power and city gas suppliers to raise rates next month
Major power and city gas suppliers are set to raise rates in October following the end of the government's subsidy program in September.
Kansai Electric Power is preparing to decommission the No.1 and No. 2 units at its oil-fired Gobo thermal power station in Wakayama Prefecture, according to informed sources.
JAPAN
Sep 26, 2025
Kansai Electric to retire two units at Gobo oil-fired power station
The two units are expected to be decommissioned around next June, sources said.
China is reshaping the global energy landscape by pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into clean energy investments across the Global South, creating jobs and long-term influence on a scale comparable to the Marshall Plan.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 26, 2025
China is winning its power play for the Global South
Beijing’s green energy projects are bringing jobs, growth and cheap electricity to the developing world.
In an hourlong speech before the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump attacked his predecessor, his European allies and renewable energy.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Sep 24, 2025
In bid to upend global energy policy, Trump denies climate change in U.N. speech
The U.S. president made a series of misleading claims in a rambling speech that went on for nearly an hour.
An offshore wind turbine off the coast of Goto in Nagasaki Prefecture
JAPAN
Sep 21, 2025
Floating wind power sets sail in Japan's energy shift
Still heavily reliant on imported fossil fuels, Japan has declared offshore wind energy a "trump card" in its drive to make renewables.
Paulina “Jedda” Puruntatameri with Antonia Burke and Tiwi fisher Clinton offshore of Melville Island, one of the Tiwi Islands, in Australia's Northern Territory. Together with other Tiwi, Jedda has been campaigning for years to stop Australian company Santos and its backers, including Japanese investors, from drilling for natural gas at the Barossa gas field.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / OUR PLANET
Sep 21, 2025
As Japan keeps buying gas, Aboriginal Australians pay the price
Japan is Australia’s second-largest export market for energy and natural resources, giving Tokyo a certain political weight when it comes to Australian energy matters.
A crude oil tanker berths at an oil terminal, off Waidiao Island in Zhoushan, China. The country’s large-scale oil stockpiling is driven by cheap prices, expanded storage, new legal mandates, energy security worries and efforts to diversify away from U.S. assets.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 21, 2025
Why is China stockpiling so much oil?
In problem-solving, the principle of Occam’s razor recommends searching for the simplest explanation. So perhaps the answer is as straightforward as "because it’s cheap.”
The coal-fired Hunter Power Plant in Castle Dale, Utah in 2024. A former U.S. climate envoy says President Donald Trump is leading the world "in the wrong direction" on climate and weaponizing clean energy as a culture war issue.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 18, 2025
Ex-U.S. climate envoy: Trump threatening 'consensus science' worldwide
John Podesta, former U.S. President Joe Biden's senior point person on international climate policy, testified in a case challenging the administration's fossil fuel agenda.
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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