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November 08, 2025
 

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ENVIRONMENT

By the end of August, 8,341 people had been transported by ambulance for heatstroke in Tokyo alone.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 1, 2025
More sweltering days forecast for September after hottest summer on record
Temperatures were more than 2.36 degrees Celsius higher than average across Japan in August, with the heat expected to continue into this month.
"It's not just about sales. It's about system change," said Marty Pomphrey, general manager of Patagonia Japan, on Aug. 6.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 1, 2025
‘Cool’ Patagonia wants to take used items into the mainstream
The American outdoor brand is looking to make the offering of secondhand goods alongside new products the next step of its evolution.
Hiroyuki Adachi, managing director of Shelter, a wooden architecture construction firm in Yamagata, speaks during a seminar in Sendai in July.
BUSINESS / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Sep 1, 2025
Wooden high-rise buildings increasing in Tohoku amid decarbonization trend
Major real estate developers and construction companies are focusing on wood, pushed by legislation and systems encouraging the use of domestically produced lumber.
The Lhasa River, a major tributary of the Yarlung Zangbo River, flows near the southern part of the Tibetan capital, Lhasa. China’s new megadam project could become a geopolitical and ecological time bomb. Getty Images
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 29, 2025
The global perils of China’s new ‘superdam’ project
One might have expected the revelation of China's huge dam project to set off alarm bells worldwide. Instead, the reaction has been muted.
The Ming Yang OceanX in the Qingzhou IV offshore wind farm near Yangjiang, China, on Aug. 8.
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 29, 2025
China is running the world's most powerful floating wind turbine
The OceanX is an eloquent symbol of the ambitions of Chinese green technology companies.
Wind turbines in the town of Happo in Akita prefecture. Wind power is a key part of Japan's alternative energy drive.
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
Aug 28, 2025
Mitsubishi’s wind-power retreat a blow to Japan's alternative-energy goals
Dramatic withdrawal by trading house from three projects comes amid similar moves globally.
People shield themselves from the sun with umbrellas in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Aug 27, 2025
Tokyo logs record 10 days of 35 C or hotter, weather agency says
Japan sweltered through its hottest ever June and July this year.
Mitsubishi Corporation withdrew from three offshore wind projects in Japan, dealing a setback to the emerging industry as it faces slow development and escalating costs.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 27, 2025
Mitsubishi withdraws from three offshore wind projects in Japan
The dent to Japan’s nascent sector threatens to further derail the fossil fuel-dependent nation’s energy transition and climate goals.
An employee at a wholesaler puts a price tag on a package of sea urchins from Hokkaido at Tsukiji Outer Market in Tokyo on Friday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 26, 2025
Warming seas add to food inflation woes as urchin rice bowls hit ¥18,000
Policymakers have mostly blamed rising food prices on the weak yen's upward pressure on import costs, but the effects of global warming now also loom as a risk.
Traffic along a highway in New Delhi. India, the world's third largest emitter of carbon dioxide, will be able to access Japanese decarbonization technologies at low cost under a joint crediting mechanism.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Aug 25, 2025
Japan and India to use joint crediting mechanism in emission-cutting plan
The yet-to-be-announced plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in India using Japanese technologies will allow Japan to count part of the reductions as its own.
A man walks past a drilling machine damaged by protesters opposing the proposed 11,500 MW Siang Upper Multipurpose Dam Project, in Parong, Siang district, Arunachal Pradesh, India, on Aug. 1.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 25, 2025
China's new mega-dam triggers fears of water war in India
Delhi estimates the Chinese dam will allow Beijing to divert as much as 40 billion cubic meters of water, or just over a third of what is received annually at a key border point.
A tourist enjoys the Ras Hankorab beach in the Red Sea Wadi Al-Gemal protectorate in southern Egypt. The local environment is under threat amid development projects.
ENVIRONMENT
Aug 21, 2025
Tourism deal puts one of Egypt's last wild shores at risk
The shadowy contract, which allows for the construction of a resort on one of the country's last undisturbed Red Sea beaches, was halted but not permanently canceled.
Muddied prospectors pan for gold in Manica province, Mozambique, near the Zimbabwe border, in 2010.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Aug 20, 2025
Mozambique's illegal miners reap risky rewards but land suffers
Rivers around mining sites are polluted, and mercury has seeped into the soil, creating a nightmare for farmers.
Sharon Kwok Pong, founder of the Hong Kong Parrot Rescue, interacts with "Winnie," a rescued yellow-crested cockatoo.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Aug 19, 2025
Hong Kong scientist puts hope in nest boxes to save endangered cockatoos
Their future now hangs in the balance, due to habitat loss and, some suspect, a black market for the rare birds.
A pyrocumulus cloud forms as smoke rises from a wildfire as seen from a cemetery in the village of Vilarmel, Lugo area, Galicia region, Spain, on Saturday.
WORLD
Aug 19, 2025
Spain and Portugal continue to battle deadly wildfires
Two firefighters were killed on Sunday — one in each country, both in road accidents — taking the death toll to two in Portugal and four in Spain.
South African Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana (right) and the country’s reserve bank governor, Lesetja Kganyago, attend the Group of 20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting in Cape Town on Feb. 27. 
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 18, 2025
A new trade agenda for climate-resilient development
Policymakers must be prepared to introduce new trade rules that support low-carbon transitions in Africa and across the Global South.
A BNP Paribas branch in Paris. The EU’s biggest bank by assets was questioning the value of continued Net-Zero Banking Alliance membership as recently as June.
BUSINESS
Aug 16, 2025
Banking’s ailing climate coalition loses ground in Europe
Inside the world’s largest climate coalition for banks, there’s speculation that an exodus led by Wall Street could be about to spread to the European Union.
The Parque da Cidade, the main venue for the COP30 summit, under construction in Belem, Brazil, on May 5.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 14, 2025
Lula’s plan for COP30 in Amazon risks becoming a logistical mess
With fewer than 100 days to go, Brazil is under fire from countries concerned about a shortage of hotel rooms and soaring accommodation costs.
The government is considering requiring handheld fans to be recycled, in the wake of a host of fires caused by rechargeable electric devices during disposal work.
JAPAN
Aug 13, 2025
Japan may make recycling handheld fans mandatory
The consideration comes in the wake of a host of fires caused by rechargeable electric devices during disposal work.
Four units at the Gravelines nuclear power plant in northern France were shut down on Monday due to the "massive and unforeseeable presence of jellyfish" in the pumping stations for the water used to cool the reactors.
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 12, 2025
Jellyfish shut down French nuclear reactors as heat wave builds
A marine heat wave, like the one intensifying off the west coast of France, can help jellyfish populations "bloom," and several beaches have been closed due to their invasion.
The Toyota buyout is a major test for Japan’s reforms
Akio Toyoda, chairman of Toyota Motor, speaks during a media preview at the Japan Mobility Show in Tokyo on Oct. 29. Minority investors are challenging the carmaker's bid to take affiliate Toyota Industries Corp. private.
From France to Mali, a deportee's struggle far from home
Moussa Sacko, a Malian deported from France — where he had lived since he was a young child — stands on a street in Bamako, Mali, in December. Compared with his home in France, Bamako feels like a different planet, Sacko said.
New satellite images suggest 'mass graves' in Sudan's El-Fasher
A general view of a berm construction in Kinin Village near El-Fasher.
High-speed rail is expensive and difficult, but seen as a key to growth
Achal Khare, former managing director at India’s National High Speed Rail Corporation, gives a presentation during the IHRA Forum 2025 in Tokyo on Oct. 23.
SoftBank is said to have explored potential takeover of Marvell
SoftBank explored a potential takeover of U.S. chipmaker Marvell Technology earlier this year, in what would have been the semiconductor industry's largest-ever deal.
These are the hottest lower-division rikishi to watch right now
Fukazaki (right) grapples with Enho at the IG Arena in Nagoya on July 13.
Across borders and screens, Tokyo film festival finds humanity in migration
“Mother Bhumi” takes place in a multiethnic rice-farming community where Chinese, Thai and Malay lineages intertwine.
Takaichi’s balancing act: Supporting Taiwan and stabilizing China ties
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi shakes hands with Lin Hsin-i, Taiwan’s presidential adviser, on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit meeting in Gyeongju, South Korea, on Saturday in this image posted to Takaichi's official X account.
From 1973 to 2025: A Japanese American skater’s long ride to recognition
Judi Oyama at Winchester Skatepark in San Jose, California, in January 1979. The Skateboarding Hall of Fame inductee and Guinness World Record holder still skates and hopes to inspire older women.
More Japanese universities pushing toward teaching in English
Waseda University in Tokyo

Podcast

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

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes
By Alex K.T. Martin

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