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September 01, 2025
 

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INSECTS

Former Formula One champion Sebastian Vettel (left) helps Lewis Hamilton prepare the Mercedes team's "bee hotel" at Suzuka Circuit in Mie Prefecture on Thursday.
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Sep 22, 2023
Sebastian Vettel creates a buzz in Japan amid biodiversity crisis
The retired former champion invited current F1 drivers to make a small contribution to nature by building "bee hotels" next to the Suzuka Circuit track.
A deadly parasite that’s ravaged bee populations globally has made deeper inroads into Australia.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Sep 11, 2023
Bee-killing mite's rapid spread could cost Australia billions
A mite known for feeding on bees has spread further inland toward Victoria, the nation’s biggest producer of nuts and fruit.
Surging populations of plant-eating insects are disrupting farms and the food supply chain, causing problems far more serious than sticky windshields from bug excrement.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 20, 2023
The insect apocalypse is coming to your neighborhood
Polar bears and sea turtles get most of the attention as victims of climate change, but when the bugs invade we're all going to feel it personally.
Warabeya Nichiyo Holdings has apologized after a video went viral that showed one of its rice ball products appearing to contain a cockroach at a Seven Eleven convenience store.
BUSINESS
Aug 7, 2023
Cockroach contamination sends rice-ball supplier’s stock reeling
The company said it is recalling all relevant goods from the factory in Omiya where the food was produced.
As synonymous with summer as fireworks and sweltering temperatures, mosquitoes are ubiquitous in Japan. However, will rising temperatures lead more dangerous species of the bug to call Japan home?
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife / Longform
Aug 7, 2023
The mosquito: Summer’s unwelcome little bloodsucker
An outbreak of dengue in Yoyogi Park nine years ago could be a sign of things to come if the wrong mosquito makes it into Japan.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Jun 23, 2023
Chemical-maker Kao unveils new way to combat mosquitoes
Researchers found that spraying a solution that allows mosquitoes' wings to become wet can prevent them from flying and knock them out of the air.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Feb 20, 2023
As food crisis looms, some wonder, 'What's it like to eat insects?'
A vending machine that offers edible insects was recently set up in Sendai, and the bugs are selling well, but it is also true that many people hate even the sight of insects.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Dec 6, 2022
From flickering fireflies to lowly dung beetles, insects are vanishing
Amid deforestation, pollution and climate change, bugs are struggling — along with the crops, flowers and animals that rely on them to survive.
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA
Feb 23, 2022
The Joy of Cooking (Insects)
Climate-conscious cooking means getting creative.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / Longform
Jan 9, 2021
Insects: The future of food?
A thriving industry looks promising if consumer aversion can be overcome.
Japan Times
WORLD / FOCUS
Aug 31, 2020
Millions of beetles are wiping out forests around the world
Due to climate change, trees are more easily attacked and killed by the insects, in turn impacting forests' ability to absorb carbon and emit oxygen.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Aug 25, 2020
What bugs me most about the summer
It's summertime and that means the sounds of cicadas and the bites of mosquitoes.
Japan Times
LIFE
Aug 11, 2020
Beetlemania: Japanese collectors pay high prices for big bugs
The nation's love of stag and rhinoceros beetles has flourished during the pandemic, with families driving demand.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 18, 2020
Overindulging at home and playing the online ratings game amid a pandemic
One man reportedly left as many as 18 empty wine bottles and four large empty sake bottles out to be recycled each week during the pandemic.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 23, 2020
Rats, bugs, crooks and trucks share media spotlight amid pandemic
With city dwellers around the world in lockdown, increasing reports have surfaced about wild animals infiltrating urban areas.
JAPAN
Oct 21, 2019
Japan's government to take steps to prevent fire ants from settling
The government Monday decided to take steps to prevent poisonous foreign fire ants from settling in Japan.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Jul 28, 2019
Will our insects keep on disappearing?
With concern, but little surprise, I read an article by Daphne Rousseau in The Japan Times on July 2 about a mass extinction of insects in Krefeld, Germany, near the Dutch border.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jul 25, 2019
The sound of summer: Love them or hate them, cicadas have a special place in Japanese culture
Cicadas — known as semi in Japanese — are a superfamily of insects with around 2,000 known species worldwide, around 35 of which live in Japan.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / Kateigaho International Japan Edition
Jul 6, 2019
Ryo: A frame of mind to beat the heat
The first of a four-part series that focuses on traditional ways to mitigate the heat of a Japanese summer.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Feb 21, 2019
Why do zebras have stripes? Because they make bad landing strips for flies
Scientists are providing new evidence to answer the long-standing question about why zebras have stripes. It appears stripes make terrible landing strips, bamboozling the fierce blood-sucking flies that try to feast on zebras and carry deadly diseases.
Top Japan trade negotiator canceled U.S. trip over rice, report says
Ryosei Akazawa
‘Mount Fuji Lawson’ becomes a symbol of Japan’s overtourism problem
A couple poses for a wedding photo in front of a Lawson in the town of Kawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, on Aug. 25.
Philippine bid to acquire used Japanese warships gains steam
Tokyo is looking to transfer Abukuma-class vessels to the Philippines as part of broader efforts to boost the defense capabilities of like-minded neighbors amid growing Chinese military assertiveness in the region.
Japan to launch broad review of immigration policies amid rise in foreign nationals
Foreign tourists at Narita Airport in June. A report released Friday stresses that Japan is at a turning point and that current ad-hoc measures on immigration are no longer sufficient.
The Nobel Prize and a testy phone call: How the Trump-Modi relationship unraveled
U.S. President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi greet one another at the start of a joint news conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington in February.
Japan to launch broad review of immigration policies amid rise in foreign nationals
Foreign tourists at Narita Airport in June. A report released Friday stresses that Japan is at a turning point and that current ad-hoc measures on immigration are no longer sufficient.
Japan is warming up to tattoos — just not permanent ones
Tattoos have a complex history in Japan, but new types of temporary ink are letting locals curious about body art experiment without the commitment.
YouTube Music Weekend is where Japan’s internet-born performers go global
Headlining the second day of YouTube Music Weekend is Vocaloid artist Kikuo, who, with 1.46 million YouTube subscribers, is one of the most popular artists in the genre.
Japan looks to build drone ‘shield’ in record defense budget request
A group of Ground Self-Defense Force service members discuss drone operations and capabilities at a joint static display during the Orient Shield 24 opening ceremony at the Yausubetsu Training Area in Hokkaido in July last year.
Can anime carry the memories of World War II?
Many schools in Japan show "Grave of the Fireflies" as educational material to tell the emotionally grueling story of a boy who has no means to prevent his sister from starving to death.

Podcast

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

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

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

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