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August 22, 2025
 

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ENVIRONMENT

Softbank has invested $15 million in a startup's climate monitoring stations that are designed to capture real-time data on wildfires, flooding and greenhouse gases.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 26, 2025
SoftBank backs startup building giant floating climate stations
The massive, bullet-shaped helium balloons will monitor climate data and bring connectivity to hard-to-reach areas.
People cross a street under the hot sun in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jun 26, 2025
Last week’s heat wave in Japan not possible without climate change, analysis shows
The heat wave, which came shortly after the rainy season was declared, caused a surge in ambulance calls for heat-related illnesses.
Japan showed improved performance in the category of “no poverty” but did worse in fields like “zero hunger” and “press freedom” in the latest SDG Index.
JAPAN
Jun 24, 2025
Japan ranks in the top 20 on SDG index
Japan was rated 19th this year, behind Estonia and Belgium and above Portugal and Hungary.
Japan sees liquefied natural gas as vital to energy security.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 20, 2025
Japan seeks gas past 2050, with AI and data centers set to lift demand
The government expects a boom in artificial intelligence, data centers and semiconductor chip-making factories to revive power demand.
A firefighter works during the Eaton Fire in Pasadena, California, on Jan. 8.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jun 19, 2025
Warning signs on climate flashing bright red: top scientists
Greenhouse gas emissions hit a new high in 2024 and averaged a record 53.6 billion metric tons per year of CO2, they reported in a peer-reviewed update.
A dead sea star in 2015. About 5 billion sea stars died from a disease outbreak, likely including this one.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jun 18, 2025
Marine heat waves are spreading around the world
Some unusual ocean events have become so intense that scientists have coined a new term: super marine heat waves.
While leaders, researchers and activists at the third United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice, France, took steps to tackle overfishing and pollution threatening delicate ecosystems and the people who depend on them, getting countries to agree to better governance has been challenging.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Jun 17, 2025
Investors want clear ocean management rules to scale up funding
The lack of a clear governing framework and robust ocean-related data has stymied private sector finance to date.
Africa’s "blue economy" (oceans and waterways) is vital for global trade, climate resilience and food security, and remains deeply underfunded despite its multibillion-dollar potential.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 16, 2025
Scaling investment for Africa’s sustainable 'blue economy'
Spanning more than 30,000 kilometers of coastline, Africa’s "blue economy" does $300 billion worth of business each year.
The oceans have absorbed most anthropogenic heat and carbon dioxide emissions since the start of industrialization. But their capacity to do so is not unlimited.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 15, 2025
The ocean is not just a carbon sink
Reducing the value of three-quarters of our planet to the singular role of carbon sink overlooks the ocean’s vast contributions to food security, cultural identity and economics.
A 250-meter-long bus stop roof using perovskite solar cells in the city of Osaka
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 13, 2025
Government paper seeks to link next-gen energy tech to business opportunities
The white paper stated that Japanese products are leading the world in terms of their durability and larger sizes, which are key features for commercialization.
People swim in the Mediterranean Sea on a sunny and warm spring day during the third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3), which gathers leaders, researchers and activists to discuss how to protect marine life, in Nice, France, on Tuesday.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Jun 11, 2025
Leaders warn race for minerals could turn seabed into 'wild west'
Anxiety over Trump's push to fast-track deep-sea mining in international waters took center stage at the opening of the U.N. Ocean Conference in France.
A hydroelectric dam near Shannan in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in March 2025
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 10, 2025
Catastrophe on the roof of the world
As the source of 10 major rivers that sustain nearly 20% of the world’s population, the Plateau’s degradation threatens regional water security, food systems and biodiversity.
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.
JICA to designate four Japanese cities as 'hometowns' for African nations
The Japanese flag (left) with the flag of the African Union
103-year-old remembers Soviet attack right after WWII
Shoichi Takahashi holds a photo of himself when he was younger, in Otaru, Hokkaido, on May 17.
Schools get students involved in revision of unreasonable ‘black rules’
At Yawata Junior High School in Nagoya, there are no more rules on clothing and hairstyles. Students are free to wear either the school's uniform or clothes of their own choosing.
Tokyo crowned No.1 'workation' spot
Workations were a burgeoning trend in the corporate world for years before the COVID-19 pandemic turbocharged it.
Japanese man suspected of ordering double murder in Manila
Two suspects arrested over the killing of two Japanese last week are held in restraints in Manila on Tuesday.
Tokyo crowned No.1 'workation' spot
Workations were a burgeoning trend in the corporate world for years before the COVID-19 pandemic turbocharged it.
Atsushi Kitagawara’s exhibition finds poetry in architecture
The inverted cone, one of Atsushi Kitagawara’s six signature elements in architecture, is a key feature of the Nakamura Keith Haring Collection museum building.
Candidates preparing to make final pitches for Sawamura Award
Hawks pitcher Livan Moinelo has a 1.13 ERA in 19 starts this season.
Winning warship bid gives Japan confidence boost as Tokyo eyes more exports
Australia’s decision to select Japan's upgraded Mogami-class warship, seen in this computer-generated image, has been “well received across Japanese industry," a Defense Ministry official said.
In Paris, chefs Chizuko Kimura and Kei Kobayashi make their mark
Chef Kei Kobayashi is France's only Japanese chef with three Michelin stars.

Podcast

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

Longform

Members of the nonprofit group Japan Youth Memorial Association search for the remains of dead soldiers in a cave in Okinawa Prefecture in February.
The long search for Japan’s lost soldiers
By Tomoko Otake

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

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