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June 05, 2025
 

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POLLUTION

Eiichi Minagawa, the representative of a victim group of Niigata Minamata disease, speaks during a ceremony on Saturday to mark the 60th anniversary of the official recognition the disease.
JAPAN
Jun 1, 2025
Ceremony marks 60 years since Niigata Minamata disease recognition
At the ceremony, about 300 people observed a moment of silence for the victims.
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.
Tugboats assist a liquified natural gas tanker as it docks at a port in Yantai, China, in February. In 2021, China became the largest importer of LNG, and as of this year, China now has the most long-term LNG contracts.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / OUR PLANET
Jun 1, 2025
China is eroding Japan's LNG dominance. How does that affect Japanese buyers?
Japanese companies have long held the leading position in the buying and trading of one of the world's key energy sources, but that era of hegemony has come to an end.
A worker sorts plastic waste for recycling at Minato Resource Recycle Center in Tokyo in 2019. Japan has been criticized by environmental groups for its strategy on plastics, which is heavily reliant on recycling instead of reduction.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability / OUR PLANET
May 25, 2025
Are microplastics hurting our fertility?
While a lot remains unknown about how microplastics affect our health, scientists in Japan and around the world broadly agree there's an urgent need to reduce plastic production.
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.
French scientist Marie-Anne Blanchet examines bear cubs before taking tissue biopsies and blood samples from their sedated mother, in eastern Spitzbergen, in Norway's Svalbard archipelago, on April 6.
ENVIRONMENT
May 19, 2025
Polar bear biopsies shed light on Arctic pollutants
The team's findings may help explain how the bears' world is changing, and at an alarming rate.
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.
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.
Air pollution is one of the most pressing health issues in India, where the country's 1.4 billion people breathe air exceeding the World Health Organization's guidelines for particulate matter.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health / ANALYSIS
May 8, 2025
Indian industries swap polluted air with each other in health fix
India's 1.4 billion people breathe air exceeding the World Health Organization's guidelines for particulate matter, which can cause severe health issues.
The Trump administration has launched a full-scale federal "plastic patriotism" effort to eliminate paper straws, arguing they are ineffective, hazardous, more expensive and become soggy.
COMMENTARY / World
May 6, 2025
A world restored: The U.S. takes the offensive against paper straws
The Trump team has issued an executive order and a national strategy to rid the country of the pulpy, soggy mess of paper straws that torments too many of America's citizens.
Environment Minister Keiichiro Asao attends a memorial service for Minamata disease victims in Minamata, Kumamoto Prefecture on Thursday.
JAPAN
May 1, 2025
Victims mourned 69 years after Minamata disease recognition
There were 2,284 certified patients of Minamata disease in Kumamoto Prefecture and neighboring Kagoshima Prefecture as of the end of March.
The town of Kanna contacted the Gunma prefectural health center to report that several residents of the Aibara district had visited a medical institution with symptoms including fever and diarrhea.
JAPAN
May 1, 2025
14 people fall ill from tap water poisoning in Gunma
An investigation by the Gunma prefectural health center revealed that the only common factor among those who fell ill was the consumption of tap water.
Stopping superpollutants like methane, which is the most potent short-lived climate pollutant, offers a fast-track opportunity to slow warming and improve public health, yet global climate plans have only recently begun to target them explicitly.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 28, 2025
The world is waking up to the dangers of superpollutants
Cutting superpollutants like methane offers a fast way to slow warming and boost public health, but climate plans have only recently begun to target them.
An Environment Ministry survey found that PFAS in groundwater and river water exceeded the provisional standard at 242 locations nationwide.
JAPAN
Apr 25, 2025
Potentially carcinogenic PFAS chemicals over standard at 242 sites in Japan
Japan banned the production and import of PFOS and PFOA, both of which are main components of PFAS, by 2021.
The levels of a type of "forever chemical" found in seven current and former employees at Daikin Industries' Yodogawa plant in Osaka Prefecture were about 38 times those for nearby residents, according to a survey conducted by a team including Kyoto University.
JAPAN
Apr 24, 2025
High levels of PFAS found in blood of Osaka factory workers
The levels for seven current and former employees were about 38 times those for residents, with three showing signs of interstitial lung disease.
A vandalized sign indicating an ultralow emission zone in west London.
ENVIRONMENT
Apr 10, 2025
Clean streets versus business woes: Pollution charge divides Londoners
The plan in London requires motorists to switch to low-emission vehicles or face a daily charge.
Gladstone, Australia, long reliant on fossil fuel exports, is now struggling to reinvent itself as the world shifts toward clean energy, with political uncertainty and economic challenges clouding its prospects.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 2, 2025
Cleaning up a giant coal and gas port isn’t easy
Gladstone is now one of the world’s biggest fossil fuel ports thanks to decades of voracious global demand for steelmaking coal and gas.
The Meteorological Agency forecast the yellow sand to move away from eastern Honshu by 6 p.m. on Wednesday. But it will continue to cover parts of western Honshu and Shikoku until Thursday morning, it said.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Mar 26, 2025
Yellow sand blankets cities across Japan
The Meteorological Agency says the phenomenon, which could reduce visibility in some regions to under 5 kilometers, is forecast to last through Thursday morning.
Bleached and dead coral around Lizard Island on the Great Barrier Reef, located 270 kilometers north of the city of Cairns, Australia, on April 5, 2024
ENVIRONMENT / Earth science
Mar 17, 2025
From oil spills to new species: How tech reveals the ocean
New technologies are helping to reveal hidden oil spills, speed up the discovery of new species and uncover the impact of light pollution.
An aerial view of Thames Water's Beddington Sewage Treatment Works near Croydon, south London on Friday. Thames Water — and other British water companies privatized since 1989 — are under fire for allowing the discharge of large quantities of sewage into rivers and the sea.
WORLD / Science & Health
Mar 17, 2025
A stain on Britain: Sewage contaminates its waterways and seas
The pollution affects the seafood and tourism industries, while delaying construction projects and hampering the economy.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic
After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
Toyota Industries receives $33 billion buyout offer from group companies
Toyota group companies could establish a new holding company to privatize Toyota Industries.
Japan’s fertility rate hits record low despite government push
The total number of births dropped to about 686,000, marking the first time the figure has fallen below 700,000, according to a health ministry release on Wednesday.
South Korea’s Lee pledges to heal deep wounds as ‘president for everyone’
South Korean President Lee Jae-myung waves with his his wife, Kim Hye-gyeong, following his inauguration ceremony at the National Assembly in Seoul on Wednesday.
Hakuho’s departure highlights worrying sumo trend
Former <i>yokozuna</i> Hakuho performs a ring-entering ceremony at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo in February 2020.
Hakuho’s departure highlights worrying sumo trend
Former <i>yokozuna</i> Hakuho performs a ring-entering ceremony at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo in February 2020.
Japanese baseball legend Shigeo Nagashima dies at 89
Shigeo Nagashima (left), then the manager of the Tokyo Giants, waves to fans with players and coaches during a victory parade in central Tokyo in 2000. Nagashima died at the age of 89 on Tuesday.
‘A garden is a grand teacher’: The Kamakura Gardener nurtures via YouTube
American Robert Jefferson runs a YouTube channel called The Kamakura Gardener that invites viewers to enjoy the pleasures of gardening, cooking and slow living.
Waves of umami: Awaji Island's culinary trove
Silversea Cruises' culinary program takes guests on a rich gourmet experience at wellness retreat Zenbo Seinei, where the local produce is presented in an eight-course meal.
Hegseth to prioritize China and more allied spending in Asia — but questions remain
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth arrives for a trilateral meeting between Japan, the U.S. and Australia at the Shangri-La Dialogue security summit in Singapore on Saturday.

Podcast

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

Longform

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic
By Alex K.T. Martin

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