Search - environment

 
 
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Mar 24, 2013

Be inspired: One person can help foster sustainable lives for millions

Last month, this column introduced Bangkok-based Midori Paxton, who is currently a regional technical adviser for biodiversity and ecosystems with the United Nations Development Programme — and who, I'm delighted to say, was a model student of mine here in Japan more than 20 years ago.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Mar 24, 2013

Gruesome death stalks the front lines of conservation

It is one of the most poignant photos I've taken during this CITES. We are in Khao Yai (literally, "Big Mountain"), Thailand's first and grandest national park. Peaks and plunges. Huge trees. Waterfalls. And there are elephants and even a few tigers out there. Also rangers and poachers and a largely...
EDITORIALS
Mar 24, 2013

Accident highlights nuclear peril

The daylong power outage last week at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant suggests that Tokyo Electric Power Co. is still skewing its priorities.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 21, 2013

Grading the developing world's rising powers

The United Nations warns of the possibility of a halt or reversal of human development progress if action is not taken to protect the environment.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 19, 2013

Finding common ground on the Senkakus dispute

The only realistic way to stabilize Japan-China relations is for both countries to go back to the idea of shelving the Senkaku Islands sovereignty issue.
Japan Times
SOCCER / J. League
Mar 16, 2013

Striker Davi looking to continue Brazilian success at Kashima

New Kashima Antlers striker Davi has wasted little time in making an impact at the seven-time J. League champions, but the Brazilian will not be satisfied until he has stamped his name on club history forever.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 13, 2013

Government smacks down the Pop-Tart terrorist

Government is failing at core functions such as budgeting, yet it still empowers protectors who panic over Pop-Tart pistols and Hello Kitty bubble guns.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Mar 10, 2013

No clearing the air over neighbor's pollution

Pollutants from China and their resultant problems are nothing new to Japan. Acid rain, principally caused by high levels of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide in industrial pollutants, has been a concern for several decades.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 9, 2013

PM2.5 sandstorms to reach Tokyo

Sandstorms from northern China and Mongolia are forecast to reach Tokyo this weekend, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Mar 3, 2013

Yukari Horie: Making life easier for working moms

Yukari Horie, 30, is managing director of Arrow Arrow, a Tokyo-based NPO that offers consulting to companies with female workers who are in the later stages of their pregnancy or who have just become moms and are wondering how to adjust their work styles to accommodate their life needs. Horie's group,...
EDITORIALS
Feb 25, 2013

China's pollution problem

Japan should provide whatever technical assistance it can to a China now facing air pollution problems that have unleashed strong public criticism.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 22, 2013

Abe's new agenda: better ties with U.S.

As the U.S. seeks to contend with a rising China, the ability of Japan to contribute, and to serve as a positive democratic role model, matters a great deal.
Japan Times
LIFE / LABOR PAINS
Feb 19, 2013

Teachers are workers, not martyrs: the severance scandal that isn't

'Teachers quitting before graduation?!' the headlines screamed as we headed into the new year.
EDITORIALS
Feb 1, 2013

Give a little on wages

To help ensure a better future for Japan's economy, labor and management leaders should strive to agree on some improvement in workers' wages.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 25, 2013

Solar lanterns brighten future for Afghans

Where would we be without light when night falls? It is hard to imagine all of the constraints during the long hours of darkness before the sun rises again — no work, no study and no recreation.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 25, 2013

Schools to close but their songs go on

Music has played an important role in easing the pain of many people in the Tohoku region whose lives were affected by the earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jan 24, 2013

Grains turned wolves into man's best friend

You know that dog biscuit shaped like a bone but made mostly of wheat? The fact that your dog is satisfied with it instead of going for a piece of your thigh may be one of the big reasons why its ancestors evolved from wolves to house pets.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Jan 22, 2013

Rag-and-bone man Kei Ochiai

Kei Ochiai is a rag-and-bone man for the Kanto region. He drives his small truck through neighborhoods in Tokyo and Yokohama, circling the areas while sounding his pitch with a loudspeaker: "Furniture, bikes, fridges, anything big and heavy, I'll take it." His jovial demeanor instantly wins him hearts...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jan 19, 2013

Impossible forests where tides ebb and flow

A ripple flows gently inland across an expanse of dark-gray mud. It washes in, then drains back, dampening the surface; it briefly fills, then empties from, tiny holes made by innumerable small crabs. The ebb is over, and the flow tide has begun.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jan 19, 2013

Why spider's silk is becoming man's best friend

Up on the roof of professor Fritz Vollrath's lab in the zoology department at Oxford University, there is a makeshift greenhouse in which he nurtures his favorite golden orb web spiders. Walking into the greenhouse is a little like finding yourself inside one of those Damien Hirst vitrines that dramatize...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 15, 2013

Japan urged to help build India's infrastructure

India needs to redouble its efforts to develop industrial and urban infrastructure that so far have not caught up with the pace of its economic growth, said Indian scholars taking part in a recent symposium in Tokyo who want Japan to play a key role to support such efforts.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 12, 2013

Osaka pushes incendiary tsunami debris plan

Despite fears of radioactive contamination, Osaka Prefecture is finalizing plans to begin incinerating 36,000 tons of tsunami debris from Iwate Prefecture next month.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 9, 2013

Globalization and its enemies

A new year needs a new word that reflects the special trends and tendencies, the hopes and dreams and challenges ahead. Sadly, a strong candidate for the word of the New Year 2013 has to be "omnishambles," meaning a mess everywhere. Wherever you look, economies are under unprecedented pressure, governments...

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