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July 31, 2025
 

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WILDLIFE

A pair of wolves carved from wood exhibited at Mitsumine Shrine’s museum in Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife / Longform
Dec 15, 2023
In praise of wolves
Premodern Japan's reverence of wolves mirrors its close bond with nature, a state eventually disrupted by the ecological impact of industrialization.
JAPAN
May 27, 2023
Hokkaido bear attack shows need for better management of island's nearly 12,000 brown bears
The exact population of Hokkaido brown bears is difficult to pin down, but experts agree that the population at least doubled over the three-decade period between 1990 and 2020.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jun 29, 2022
Modern phoenix: The bird brought back from extinction in Japan
The revival of the toki population in Niigata Prefecture is a rare conservation success story when 1 in 8 bird species globally are threatened with extinction.
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.
WORLD
Sep 25, 2018
Scientists voice opposition to weakening of U.S. Endangered Species Act
Thousands of scientists joined Monday to accuse the Trump administration of trying to erode the Endangered Species Act in favor of commercial interests with a plan to revamp regulations that have formed a bedrock of U.S. wildlife protection for over 40 years.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 20, 2018
Malaysia seizes rhino horns worth $12 million in largest such haul
Malaysia has seized rhinoceros horns worth nearly $12 million bound for Vietnam, the Southeast Asian nation's largest haul of such contraband, officials said on Monday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 3, 2016
How Japanese media have failed endangered species
In October, a new documentary produced by Leonardo DiCaprio premiered on Netflix. "The Ivory Game" is a dramatic study of the illegal trade in elephant tusks that includes conservationists battling poachers, investigative journalists following the money trail and black market merchants in China.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 6, 2016
Achieving a virtuous cycle for conservation
A virtuous cycle, whereby local producers have a direct interest in protecting wildlife because they are benefiting from its legal trade is the best long-term solution to the problem of sustainability.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Nov 15, 2014
Eels face the slippery slope to extinction
Last week I was crossing the River Thames on the way to work in London, and I happened to see a cormorant emerge from the water with a thrashing eel in its mouth. The bird juggled the fish, skillfully managing to position it so it could swallow the wriggling animal headfirst.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 11, 2014
China flouts efforts to protect world's wildlife
It would be nice to believe China's rhetoric that it cooperates with other countries in protecting wildlife. Yet, for two decades at least, Chinese consumer demand has been directly linked to the precipitous decline of wildlife populations around the globe.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Nov 8, 2014
Hanging around the threat of extinction
Night falls; stars are showing; yet I'm still perspiring. We set off in darkness into a night filled with hope. Our goal is to see one of the rarest creatures on Earth, a species once considered extinct, and for which even now fate hangs in the balance.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Nov 1, 2014
What's 'weasely' about wonderful weasels?
One of the mammals we're most likely to see in our Afan woods up here in Kurohime in the Nagano Prefecture hills is the Japanese weasel (Mustela itatsi). These wonderful little animals, known as itachi in Japanese, are master hunters that can run, climb trees, swim and dive and take down birds or other...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Oct 25, 2014
Understanding the complex web of life
"Biodiversity provides the foundation on which all life depends, including human societies," writes Nik Sekhran in the opening pages of "Biodiversity for Sustainable Development," a captivating book released earlier this month by the United Nations Development Programme.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Oct 11, 2014
A perilous flight path of life and death
As I emerged into the pre-dawn darkness of Sept. 13, I was greeted by a brief flicker of movement. I wandered along one of the upper decks of The World, past the gently slopping pool with its ring of still-vacant sun loungers. I peered at the surprisingly real potted bushes, staring at their dense green...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Sep 13, 2014
Losing count of words for groups of animals
A recent brief visit to eastern England, my annual pilgrimage to speak at the British Birdwatching Fair, has stirred childhood memories of a nursery rhyme, stirred teenage memories of my first natural-history rambles, and was a subtle reminder of how quickly our language is evolving.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jul 12, 2014
An audience with an island menace
By 8 o'clock on a warm early summer morning on Chichijima, one of Tokyo's Ogasawara Islands, bright sunshine was already threatening to overwhelm my light-sensitive eyes and the heat was cranking up in preparation for what I refer to as reptilian warmth.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jun 7, 2014
Japan's efforts bring back 'extinct' species
Oriental stork 73; crested ibis 82; red-crowned crane 1,143; short-tailed albatross estimated 3,550. Those numbers of wild birds in Japan seem perilously low — and they are, especially when considered alongside the Japanese population of 126.75 million people — but in reality they are good news!...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Apr 12, 2014
Swimming upstream to become a dragon
While shuffling back from my early-morning dip in a hot spring at Kambayashi Onsen, I noticed the fish in the garden pond. They had gathered, heads together, in a strange starlike cluster, as if for a piscine tête-à-tête. They were languorously wafting their tails slowly through the water as if barely...
Japan Times
WORLD / FOCUS
Dec 19, 2013
Cairo zoo beset by tales of 'giraffe suicide' and 'bear riots'
A giraffe committed suicide, an Egyptian newspaper reported, and the government pulled a former zoo director out of retirement to deal with the resulting media storm.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jun 1, 2013
Ecological disaster looms for rain forests of Sumatra
Our small plane had been flying low over Sumatra for three hours but all we had seen was an industrial landscape of palm and acacia trees stretching 50 km in every direction. A haze of blue smoke from newly cleared land drifted eastward over giant plantations. Long drainage canals dug through equatorial...
Japan on edge but prepared for tsunami after huge Kamchatka earthquake
Police officers ask a man to evacuate from an empty beach following a tsunami warning, in Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture, on Wednesday.
Japan to start new residency system for foreign workers
Students hoping to work in Japan attend a Japanese class at a job placement company in Hanoi in October 2022.
Last soldiers of Imperial Japanese Army have a warning for younger generations
Kunshiro Kiyozumi, 97, who was the youngest crew member of the Imperial Japanese Navy submarine I-58 in World War II, on his way to a restaurant to have lunch in Matsuyama, Japan, on April 29.
Japan marks highest-ever temperature of 41.2 C in Hyogo
Japan's temperature soared to a record 41.2 degrees Celsius in Tanba, Hyogo Prefecture, on Wednesday, surpassing the previous high of 41.1 C.
Japan should take all possible measures to raise wages, white paper says
Prolonged high prices for food and other goods have pushed down consumer sentiment and real wages, according to the Annual Report on the Japanese Economy and Public Finance for fiscal 2025.
How the Japanese TV industry is changing
Fuji TV headquarters in Tokyo's Minato Ward. Fuji TV came under fire over the manner in which it handled a case of “sexual trouble” involving former boy band member Masahiro Nakai and a female announcer.
Last soldiers of Imperial Japanese Army have a warning for younger generations
Kunshiro Kiyozumi, 97, who was the youngest crew member of the Imperial Japanese Navy submarine I-58 in World War II, on his way to a restaurant to have lunch in Matsuyama, Japan, on April 29.
Why Ishiba refuses to quit even amid intense pressure for him to go
Supporters of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba take part in a rally across the street from the Prime Minister's Office on Friday.
Behind the scenes at the Baseball Hall of Fame's new Yakyu/Baseball exhibit
“Yakyu / Baseball: The Transpacific Exchange of the Game” is set to remain on display in Cooperstown for at least five to 10 years — and possibly indefinitely.
Boys’ love dramas from Thailand make waves in Japan
Wakana, a Japanese fan of Thai BL, visits a temple in Thon Buri, Bangkok featured in the Thai adaptation of the Japanese series “Cherry Magic.” Her media consumption kindled an interest in Thai culture and language, and ultimately led her to relocate to Thailand. “I fell in love with the whole country,” she says.

Podcast

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

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear
By Jason Coskrey

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