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July 05, 2025
 

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ENVIRONMENT

The launch of Vayve Mobility Eva, India's first solar electric vehicle, at the New Delhi auto show in January. An uptick in SEV development and adoption could help least developed and small island states leapfrog to a cleaner transport sector.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 9, 2025
Solar EVs are a ray of hope for cutting emissions
Decarbonizing transport is key to cutting emissions in least developed and small island developing states, where travel demand is growing. Solar EVs offer a bright way forward.
Takuzo Aida, group director at the Riken Center for Emergent Matter Science, shows a sample of ocean-degradable plastic at its lab in Wako, Saitama Prefecture.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jun 5, 2025
Scientists in Japan develop plastic that quickly dissolves in seawater
The new material is as strong as petroleum-based plastics but breaks down into its original components when exposed to salt.
The election of Lee Jae-myung signals South Korea’s leftward shift on energy policy, but despite his ambitious renewable plans, deep-rooted regulatory, financial and geographic challenges threaten to stall progress unless reforms are swift and systemic.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 5, 2025
South Korea's new president has a chance to clean up
Years of inertia and obstruction of the transition have left the country with a system plagued by high costs and the lowest renewable penetration among developed economies.
Solar panels at an industrial complex in Rajasthan, India, are an example of India-Japan renewable energy cooperation. The two countries can strengthen their ties by co-developing green and advanced technologies, solar energy among them.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 4, 2025
The ground is fertile for Japan-India green economy partnerships
Japan and India can build on their long-standing relationship to spearhead the development of green and advanced technologies such as renewable energy and chips.
Workers add clean topsoil to a rice field, part of a government pilot project to add fresh earth to recycled and removed soil taken from areas affected by the 2011 nuclear disaster, in the village of Iitate, Fukushima Prefecture, in April.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 1, 2025
Recycling contaminated soil from Fukushima: Japan's dilemma
Massive amounts of the soil — around 14 million cubic meters of it — remain in storage near the damaged plant.
Nippon Steel said it would build a new electric arc furnace — which uses scrap metal as a raw material — at its Kyushu works, while expanding and restarting capacity at two other sites.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 30, 2025
Nippon Steel plans $6 billion investment in its Japanese mills
The spending in Japan comes at a critical juncture for the firm’s 17-month push to acquire U.S. Steel.
Workers ride motorbikes into Weda Bay Industrial Park (WBIP), a major nickel processing and smelting hub, in Lelilef Sawai, Central Halmahera, North Maluku, Indonesia, on April 18.
ENVIRONMENT
May 28, 2025
Nickel rush for stainless steel guts Indonesia tribe's forest home
The plight of the Indigenous people there started gaining attention last year after a video online showed emaciated members emerging from their homes to beg for food.
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.
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.
Over the past three years, banks with the most blended-finance transactions include SMBC, Citigroup, BNP Paribas and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 22, 2025
Sumitomo Mitsui among banks stepping up deals for blended finance
Deals blending public and private funds totaled $18 billion last year, down 21% from 2023, according to Convergence.
A partially submerged car is seen in the aftermath of Typhoon Hagibis, in Nagano Prefecture in October 2019. The Weather Attribution Center Japan, which was founded Tuesday, aims to publicize the results of its climate attribution assessment within days of a typhoon, torrential rain or extreme heat.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / OUR PLANET
May 21, 2025
When extreme weather hits, Japan scientists will have faster answers on climate links
The Weather Attribution Center will aim to publish concrete links between global warming and extreme weather events within days, rather than months.
China’s prolonged real estate slump has pushed housing construction back to early 2000s levels, sharply cutting cement production and offering a rare climate reprieve from one of the world’s biggest sources of carbon emissions.
COMMENTARY / World
May 21, 2025
China’s building crash is rewinding 22 years of growth
The real estate slump may be bad for the economy, but it’s good for the planet — cement is one of the most polluting substances on Earth.
Rainmaker Mountain in Pago Pago, American Samoa
BUSINESS
May 21, 2025
Trump sets stage to sell ocean mining rights off American Samoa
There’s growing appetite in Washington for new domestic sources of critical minerals, following China’s decision to curb exports of rare-earth materials.
Ocean plastic pollution is a systemic crisis that cannot be solved by a few sustainability-minded citizens recycling but requires an economy-wide solution.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 19, 2025
The true cost of ocean plastic pollution
The problem of maritime plastic-waste pollution first became apparent in the 1970s. In the half-century since then, the problem has become ever more widespread, as scientific expeditions conducted by the Tara Ocean Foundation (of which I am executive director) have shown.
Founded with a mission of promoting electric vehicles, Formula E has always placed sustainability at the forefront of its raison d’etre.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
May 18, 2025
For Formula E, ‘sustainability is at the heart’
Now in its 11th season, Formula E's efforts to reduce emissions and promote electric vehicles are paying off.
The rush to electrify everything is reshaping energy, but without addressing demand, grid and supply risks, the green transition may falter.
COMMENTARY / World
May 18, 2025
It’s electricity realism, not climate denialism
Electrifying everything comes with plenty of risks of its own.
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.
New research by a U.S. climate scientists’ group reveals that extreme heat has increased the risks of preterm births and other pregnancy complications in Japan, nearly doubling the number of days that are harmfully hot for pregnant women over the past five years.
JAPAN / Science & Health
May 14, 2025
Harmfully hot days for pregnant women in Japan nearly doubled over past five years
Heat stress can raise the risks of stillbirths, miscarriages, preterm births and low-weight births, as well as congenital abnormalities for the babies.
A staff member holds a barocaloric material used by Barocal in their solid state cooling technology, at their headquarters in Cambridge.
WORLD / Science & Health
May 13, 2025
U.K. lab promises air conditioner revolution without polluting gases
Approximately 2 billion air-conditioner units are in use worldwide, and their number is increasing as the planet warms.
A small boat transits through the Bay of Balaklava near the Crimean Peninsula city of Sevastopol on the Black Sea coast. Plans to dump bundled biomass into the Black Sea have raised concerns about environmental risks.
COMMENTARY / World
May 13, 2025
Dumping biomass in the ocean is not a climate solution
Plans to dump bundled biomass into the Black Sea as part of a carbon-sequestration project have raised concerns about environmental risks.
A prophesied disaster (likely) won’t strike Japan this weekend
A viral manga prediction of a July 5 disaster has gripped Japan with anxiety and triggered an economic impact, but experts warn that while such dates are unreliable, the threat of a massive earthquake remains real. 
Magnitude 5.5 earthquake jars Tokara Islands amid flurry of seismic activity
A strong quake struck off the Tokara Islands on Thursday afternoon, with the island chain having recorded around 1,000 earthquakes since a burst of seismic activity first began on June 21.
Japan to require flight passengers to keep power banks within sight
The transport ministry has announced new regulations requiring flight passengers to keep power banks within sight to mitigate fire risks while on board planes.
Ghibli’s Isao Takahata exhibit shows how beloved anime is made
“The man who planted Japanese animation” exhibition includes a variety of sketches, drawings and animation cels from Isao Takahata films such as color design for characters by Michiyo Yasuda from "Grave of the Fireflies."
Residents of Tokara Islands begin evacuation as seismic swarm continues
Details about evacuations from Akuseki Island, located in the Tokara island chain in Kagoshima Prefecture, is seen written on a whiteboard in the city of Kagoshima on Thursday.
Ghibli’s Isao Takahata exhibit shows how beloved anime is made
“The man who planted Japanese animation” exhibition includes a variety of sketches, drawings and animation cels from Isao Takahata films such as color design for characters by Michiyo Yasuda from "Grave of the Fireflies."
Flag football facing challenges and opportunities ahead
Japan’s women’s flag football team at the 2025 International Bowl in Los Angeles in June. The sport is enjoying continued growth in the country.
From Hokusai’s Great Wave, shinkansen to One Piece: a cultural treasure box for Lego Japan
Michael Ebbesen, general manager of Lego Japan, says Lego bricks based on Japanese culture have a rich global appeal and are sellable around the world.
With farmed fish, RelationFish swims against the tide in fine dining
Chef Hideaki Matsuo (middle) and the staff of Oseto Suisan Fisheries prepare to check on their sustainably farmed fish.
As Southeast Asia heats up, a Japanese cooling giant sees a major opportunity
An employee of Daikin Cambodia explains the use of different tools during an air conditioner installation training session in Phnom Penh. Daikin is one of Japan’s oldest air conditioning companies, but as Japan’s population falls, the firm is keying in on overseas growth.

Podcast

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

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027
Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027

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