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August 29, 2025
 

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METI

A down jacket that uses recycled feathers. An Environment Ministry survey has shown that around 60% of newly supplied clothing in Japan is expected to be discarded without being reused.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 12, 2024
Japan aims to recycle 50,000 metric tons of discarded clothing
Large amounts of clothes are being thrown away as a result of massive production amid the spread of fast fashion.
Japan's excessive dependence on certain countries for chip imports is a risk to supply networks, government white paper has warned.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 9, 2024
Government white paper flags Japan's risks of import dependencies
The paper stressed the importance of import source diversification, to prevent excessive dependence that poses a risk to supply networks.
A wind farm in Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture. For Japan's future energy roadmap to center on clean sources, the government should reform the institutions overseeing energy policy to avoid vested interests from slowing the transition down.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 24, 2024
It’s time for Japan to set up a climate change agency
The government is currently reviewing Japan's Strategic Energy Plan. But who's shaping this key document for the future? It's mostly older men with vested interests.
Some major world economies want to finalize a plan ahead of this year's U.N. climate summit to halt new private sector funding for coal projects.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jun 8, 2024
Major world economies seek to halt new private sector coal financing
The biggest pushback on the OECD proposal to halt new private sector funding for coal projects has come from Japan, sources said.
Wind turbines stand next to solar panels at a solar plant in Awaji, Hyogo Prefecture. Japan's energy plan under a review is expected to call for raising the renewable energy sources in the power mix.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
May 16, 2024
Japan begins review of basic energy plan amid spread of AI
Power demand could expand further if growth in the amount of information processed by advanced AI accelerates.
The Tokyo District Court on Monday sentenced a former industry ministry bureaucrat to 10 years in prison for drugging six women with sleeping pills and then raping or groping them in 2022.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 13, 2024
Ex-METI bureaucrat given 10-year sentence for drugging and raping women
Dai Sato gave six women in Tokyo a beverage mixed with sleeping pills so that they wouldn't be able to resist his advances.
Counterfeit credit cards at the Osaka Prefectural Police Department in November
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 10, 2024
Illicit credit card use damage hits record high in Japan
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry aims to strengthen measures to prevent such damage.
Japan aims to have 10 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind power projects by 2030 and up to 45 GW by 2040, to replace fossil fuels including coal and liquefied natural gas in its energy mix — for which floating offshore wind is essential.
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 13, 2024
Japan to expand offshore wind development to exclusive economic zones
Global energy companies have been urging Japan to make investments more attractive, amid soaring costs and growing competition between suppliers.
TSMC's new factory in Kikuyo, Kumamoto Prefecture
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 4, 2024
Japan in the midst of a semiconductor plant construction rush
The government set aside ¥4 trillion between fiscal 2021 and fiscal 2023 for subsidies for helping companies build semiconductor plants.
The government will extend subsidies worth as much as ¥242.9 billion for Kioxia and Western Digital to expand memory chip production in Mie and Iwate prefectures.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 6, 2024
Japan extends subsidies to downturn-hit Kioxia and Western Digital
The funding provides underpinning for the two companies, which have been hammered by a slump in the market for NAND flash chips.
People take shelter in the Khreshchatyk metro station during an air strike alarm in Kyiv on Thursday amid the Russia invasion of Ukraine.
JAPAN
Dec 15, 2023
Japan expands sanctions over Russia's Ukraine invasion
Tokyo added to its sanctions list 57 organizations in Russia and six others in countries.
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has been meeting with Japanese buyers, as well as overseas suppliers, to urge the signing of more long-term LNG contracts.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 21, 2023
Japan urges LNG buyers to sign long-term deals for fuel security
The push is meant to insulate Japan from future supply shocks, as well as potentially harsher sanctions against Russian fuel exports.
JERA's coal-fired power plant in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, is under construction in 2021.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / OUR PLANET
Oct 22, 2023
Japan sticks with climate solution that critics say is far from clean
The government hopes to use ammonia on a massive scale to reduce emissions from coal-fired power plants, but environmentalists remain skeptical.
Japan has doubled its target for the installation of electric vehicle charging outlets to 300,000 outlets by 2030.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 19, 2023
Industry ministry doubles target for EV charger installments
The aim is to accelerate installments so that Japan can achieve its target of having electrified vehicles account for 100% of its new car sales by 2035.
BUSINESS
Sep 27, 2023
Industry ministry sees LNG stocks recovering toward winter
LNG stocks have been declining since May as a long, hot summer boosted the use of air-conditioners, lifting demand for power and fuels.
JAPAN / Explainer
Aug 24, 2023
A closer look at the Fukushima water discharge plan
The IAEA, the Japanese government and many nuclear experts say this process is safe and consistent with what other countries are doing.
BUSINESS
Aug 4, 2023
Japan to strengthen resources diplomacy with Africa
Japanese companies have been falling behind foreign rivals in launching resources development projects in Africa.
Storage tanks for radioactive water at Tokyo Electric Power Co's tsunami-crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2023
No change in plan to release treated water, minister says
Japan's industry minister says there is no change to plan to start releasing treated water from Fukushima nuclear plant this summer.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 11, 2023
Japan's supreme court makes landmark decision on transgender rights
In the first Supreme Court decision over bathroom usage by sexual minorities, the body ruled it was unlawful to restrict the use of bathrooms by a transgender woman at the economy ministry.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 9, 2023
Little progress on laws over gun-making sites a year after Abe's death
Japan has made little progress in regulating online videos and websites showing how to make guns and explosives a year after the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
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.
Koshien’s dark summer forces reckoning for high school baseball
Koryo High School players greet their cheering section after beating Hokkaido’s Asahikawa Shiho in the first round of Summer Koshien on Aug. 7. The school withdrew three days later as a bullying scandal enveloped the team.
Akazawa's trip to Washington for tariff talks abruptly canceled
Ryosei Akazawa, Japan's chief tariff negotiator, had been set to fly to Washington on Thursday.
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.
Confusion over Japan’s ‘hometown’ plan overshadows African development event
First Lady Yoshiko Ishiba (center, in white and blue dress) hosts an event on Japanese culture with the first ladies of African leaders on the sidelines of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Yokohama on Aug. 21.
Mitsubishi’s wind-power retreat a blow to Japan's alternative-energy goals
Wind turbines in the town of Happo in Akita prefecture. Wind power is a key part of Japan's alternative energy drive.
Virtual singer Kaf's music becomes magic in 'Kamitsubaki City Under Construction'
Virtual singer Kaf got her start in 2018 by posting songs and covers to YouTube. Now, after having performed live shows at major venues including Tokyo’s Nippon Budokan, she is turning to voice acting and starring in the new anime series “Kamitsubaki City Under Construction.”
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.
In pictures: Koenji Awa Odori 2025
Japan Times
Koshien’s dark summer forces reckoning for high school baseball
Koryo High School players greet their cheering section after beating Hokkaido’s Asahikawa Shiho in the first round of Summer Koshien on Aug. 7. The school withdrew three days later as a bullying scandal enveloped the team.

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

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