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September 15, 2025
 

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ENVIRONMENT

Sustainability

Climate change
Energy
Sustainability
Wildlife
Earth science
As of August 2024, the number of confirmed chagusaba farmers had fallen to 302, just over half the 582 reported in 2015, according to the Shizuoka Chagusaba Farming Method Promotion Council.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability / OUR PLANET
Shizuoka farmers fight to preserve sustainable tea method that’s steeped in tradition
The chagusaba method is sustainable, makes tea taste better and helps with biodiversity. But it’s also labor-intensive and the number of practitioners is dwindling.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Polluted and poor: Blighted U.S. cities tackle 'toxic soup'
The worst effect could be seen in poor, minority areas, where heavy industry, manufacturing and transport tend to concentrate.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
'Restoring dignity': Kenya slum exchange offers water for plastic
The Human Needs Project provides water and sanitation services in a part of Kenya where they are scarce and costly.
Villagers pan for gold in Bombana district of Indonesia's Southeast Sulawesi province in 2009.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Aug 19, 2025
Indonesia grapples with small-scale illegal gold mining
Local authorities face the challenge of encouraging villagers to keep to less-destructive ways of making money, such as sustainable agriculture.
Delegates rest outside of the assembly hall in Geneva on Friday after talks aimed at striking a landmark treaty on tackling the scourge of plastic pollution ended without a deal.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Aug 15, 2025
'Bad actors' blamed as plastic pollution treaty talks end again without deal
By Robin Millard
Countries said they wanted further negotiations despite six rounds of talks over three years having failed to find agreement.
An Afghan woman walks next to a pile of trash full of plastic bags in Kabul.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Aug 10, 2025
Momentum sagging at U.N. plastic pollution treaty talks
By Robin Millard
The negotiations have four working days left to strike a legally-binding instrument that would tackle the growing problem choking the environment.
Ecuadorian Ambassador Luis Vayas Valdivieso at the start of plastic waste treaty negotiations in Geneva on Tuesday.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Aug 9, 2025
U.N. plastic pollution treaty talks progress not 'sufficient': chair
The negotiations, which opened on Tuesday, have four days left to find consensus on a legally binding instrument that would tackle the growing problem choking the environment.
A chicken stands in a garbage dump filled with plastic in Rodriguez, Rizal province, the Philippines, on Nov. 28, 2024.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Aug 7, 2025
Trump administration memo urges countries to reject plastic production caps
By Olivia Le Poidevin and Valerie Volcovici
The U.S. stance broadly aligns with the positions laid out by the global petrochemicals industry.
Activists stage a demonstration in front of the United Nations Offices in Geneva on Monday.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Aug 5, 2025
Pressure from oil producers and U.S. threaten global pact on plastics pollution
By Olivia Le Poidevin and Valerie Volcovici
Plastic production is set to triple by 2060 without intervention, choking oceans, harming human health and accelerating climate change, according to the OECD.
Some 460 million tons of plastic are produced globally each year, half of which is single-use.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Aug 2, 2025
Efforts set to resume to reach plastic pollution pact
The coming talks follow a failure to reach a deal last December on how to stop millions of tons of plastic waste from entering the environment each year.

Is America ready for Japanese-style 7-Elevens?
Convenience stores are a fixture of Japanese life and 7-Eleven, a chain that began in the U.S. in 1927, opened its first store in Japan in 1974 — and then became wholly Japanese-owned in 2005 through parent company Seven & I Holdings.
Japan's cutting-edge railgun successfully strikes target vessel
The Defense Ministry’s Acquisition, Technology & Logistics Agency (ATLA) conducted a ship-board railgun shooting test from June to early July this year with the support of the Maritime Self-Defense Force.
‘Fairytale’ Shirakawago ranked one of the world’s most beautiful villages
Forbes and Unforgettable Travel Company have ranked Shirakawago in Gifu Prefecture as Asia's most beautiful village.
People rush to make furusato nozei donations ahead of tighter rules
A booth from the town of Betsukai in Hokkaido at an Amazon Japan furusato nо̄zei promotion event, on Sept. 5 in Tokyo's Minato Ward.
Why more hotels in Japan are offering room-only service
Nipponia Hotel Ise Kawasaki Merchant Town in Ise, Mie Prefecture
Japan's major art events converge this fall
Shinji Ohmaki’s “Tokinokage” exhibited at Fuji Textile Week 2021 shows the use of fabric as art.
An aesthetic escape to Hakone’s art-drenched hills
Between traditional examples of fine art and sleek, modern exhibitions that blend with nature, Hakone offers a unique escape from Tokyo's urban sprawl.
Niinami’s ouster quick but not unusual as corporations protect reputation
Takeshi Niinami resigns as chairman and CEO of Suntory Holdings.
As Manila modernizes its military, new opportunities emerge for Tokyo
A Brahmos missile system is displayed during a rehearsal for a military parade in New Delhi in January. The Philippines will soon receive its second batch of the supersonic cruise missiles from India.
Shizuoka farmers fight to preserve sustainable tea method that’s steeped in tradition
As of August 2024, the number of confirmed chagusaba farmers had fallen to 302, just over half the 582 reported in 2015, according to the Shizuoka Chagusaba Farming Method Promotion Council.

Podcast

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

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight
By Mai Yoshikawa

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

We are pleased to announce the winners of the 6th annual Sustainable Japan Award.
We are pleased to announce the winners of the 6th annual Sustainable Japan Award.

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