Tag - energy

 
Menu
Search
 
November 22, 2025
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

ENERGY

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.
The CCGS Naalak Nappaaluk, an oceanographic science vessel and summer-rated icebreaker, under construction at Seaspan Shipyards
WORLD
Sep 17, 2025
Nations aiming for Arctic power can’t get enough of these ships
Thawing of the top of the world from climate change has stirred a global competition to forge new, previously unnavigable shipping routes.
Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato takes part in an online meeting of Group of Seven finance ministers on Friday.
BUSINESS
Sep 17, 2025
Japan pushes back on U.S. call for tariff hikes over Russian oil
Tokyo is cautious about joining efforts to raise tariffs on countries trading with Russia as Japan itself has continued importing LNG from its neighbor.
The Sarawak Energy logo at an electric vehicle charging station in Kuching on the island of Borneo. Malaysia's verdant, river-crossed state of Sarawak is charging ahead with plans to become a regional "green battery," but its renewable energy dreams could come at serious environmental cost, experts warn.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Sep 16, 2025
Malaysia's largest island state aims to be region's 'green battery'
Sarawak's many rivers and streams offer potentially abundant hydroelectricity, but experts warn of a serious environmental cost.
Industry minister Yoji Muto speaks during a news conference on Monday in Osaka.
JAPAN
Sep 16, 2025
Countries vow to quadruple the use of sustainable fuels by 2035
Biofuels are expected to contribute to carbon reductions as plants used as their raw materials absorb carbon dioxide while growing.
U.S. President Donald Trump attends a news conference during a NATO summit in The Hague in June.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 14, 2025
Trump presses NATO nations to halt Russian oil purchases
In recent weeks, the U.S. has stepped up pressure on NATO countries to tighten energy sanctions on Russia in a bid to help end its war with Ukraine.
Oil pump jacks outside Almetyevsk, Russia, in July.
JAPAN
Sep 12, 2025
Japan expands sanctions against Russia
Tokyo will freeze the assets of 14 individuals and 51 organizations, including Russian officials, company executives and pro-Russian figures in Ukraine.
A Mitsubishi-led consortium had planned to construct offshore wind turbines with a combined output of about 1.7 million kilowatts of electricity in three areas off Akita and Chiba prefectures.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 12, 2025
Government reviews Mitsubishi-led group's exit from offshore power projects
Noting construction costs would more than double from the initial estimate, Mitsubishi and Chubu Electric announced the consortium's pullout from the projects last month.
Eight companies are suspected of maintaining or raising prices of diesel fuel sold in Tokyo to transportation and other companies.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 10, 2025
Eight companies raided in Japan over diesel fuel cartel
According to the sources, the firms are suspected of maintaining or raising prices of diesel sold in Tokyo to transportation and other companies.
Elliott Investment Management has acquired a stake in Japanese regional utility Kansai Electric Power, according to a person familiar with the matter.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 10, 2025
Activist fund Elliott reported to take stake in Kansai Electric, eyeing assets
Activist hedge funds have been honing in on property held by Japanese companies valued at its original cost on their balance sheets as part of their investment strategy.
Japanese court orders Cloudflare to pay ¥500 million over manga piracy
Cloudflare has been ordered to pay ¥500 million after four major publishing firms accused the firm of copyright infringement for its role in hosting sites that distribute pirated copies of manga titles.
The reality of human trafficking in Japan
A view of Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward at night. Last year in Japan, 66 people were put in protective custody as victims of human trafficking. Among them, 58 — including all 41 minors — were Japanese nationals. International pressure to act on human trafficking led Japan to make efforts to crack down on the crime, such as a tightening of conditions in 2005 for entertainer visas.
Japan plans higher visa fees for foreign residents
Along with planned higher fees for foreign residents to stay, Japan is looking to raise the ¥3,000 single-entry visa fee for inbound tourists to Western standards in the next fiscal year.
¥21.3 trillion stimulus package approved by Cabinet
The Cabinet is expected to submit an extra budget bill to finance the package to parliament, which is in session until Dec. 17.
First foreign president of Hosei University looks abroad for change
Hosei University President Diana Khor, who herself was an international student, aims to encourage students to look outward and cultivate a global mindset.
First foreign president of Hosei University looks abroad for change
Hosei University President Diana Khor, who herself was an international student, aims to encourage students to look outward and cultivate a global mindset.
Japanese companies advised to change mindset about investment in Africa
Bernard Laurendeau, chief of Enkopa Lab Japan, in Tokyo last month
Munetaka Murakami headlines quartet looking to move to MLB via posting system
The Swallows' Munetaka Murakami has 246 career home runs in eight NPB seasons.
The reality of human trafficking in Japan
A view of Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward at night. Last year in Japan, 66 people were put in protective custody as victims of human trafficking. Among them, 58 — including all 41 minors — were Japanese nationals. International pressure to act on human trafficking led Japan to make efforts to crack down on the crime, such as a tightening of conditions in 2005 for entertainer visas.
Why we can’t get enough of the sham of the rental family
“Rental Family,” directed and co-written by the single-named Hikari, follows out-of-work actor Phillip (Brendan Fraser), who is hired as the “token white guy” at a Tokyo agency called Rental Family.

Podcast

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

Longform

Juzo Itami’s “Tampopo” was released Nov. 23, 1985, and though it wasn’t a hit at the time, it has gained a cult following in the years since.
Eat, slurp, love: 'Tampopo' turns 40
By Weiwen Lin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Tokyo Gas lights the way to carbon neutrality
Tokyo Gas lights the way to carbon neutrality

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER