Search - environment

 
 
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 16, 2014

Power play: the debate over renewable energy

On Aug. 26, 2011, the same day that Prime Minister Naoto Kan resigned after widespread criticism of his handling of the meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant that followed the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, the Diet passed legislation that created a new feed-in...
COMMENTARY / World / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 16, 2014

China's million-migrant march into Africa

The scramble for Africa is intensifying. In early August, U.S. President Barack Obama hosted 50 African leaders, signaling renewed interest in the continent.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Aug 16, 2014

What kind of life could live in the clouds?

Do you remember seeing clouds from an airplane for the first time? Even if that first time was as an adult, you were probably struck by the appearance of solidity. Seen from above, a cloudscape looks like a landscape — it looks like a place where things might live.
EDITORIALS
Aug 16, 2014

Student absenteeism on the rise

Absenteeism for compulsory schools in Japan rose in fiscal 2013 for the first time in six years. Some of the students absent for 30 days or more feel permanently behind and give up going to class.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 15, 2014

Aging WWII veterans fret about shift away from pacifist principles

Tokuro Inokuma, a former Imperial Japanese Army soldier, got his first taste of the horrors of war in 1945 when he scrambled to gather up the scattered limbs of his fellow servicemen, blown apart by a U.S. air raid in Japan. He was 16.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 15, 2014

Rise of the machines? Tiny robot horde swarms to form shapes

They look vaguely like miniature hockey pucks skittering along on three pinlike metal legs, but a swarm of small robots called Kilobots at a laboratory at Harvard University is making a little bit of history for automatons everywhere.
JAPAN
Aug 15, 2014

Abe-Xi summit may hinge on marking of WWII defeat at Yasukuni

Any chance that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will get his wish for a summit with China may hinge on the commemoration of the 69th anniversary of Japan's defeat in World War II at Tokyo's contentious Yasukuni war shrine.
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 14, 2014

In threat to coastal cities, Antarctic melt may lift sea level faster than previously believed

The melting of glaciers in Antarctica because of global warming may push up sea levels faster than previously believed, potentially threatening coastal cities including Tokyo, New York and Shanghai, researchers in Germany said.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 13, 2014

Tavarataivas (365 Nichi no Simple Life)

Perhaps you are aware of the tiny house movement, where people move into a teensy-tiny house with the barest of amenities, or Project 333, where people choose to dress with only 33 items for three months or longer. Both have gained significant interest over the last few years as more people in the so...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 13, 2014

SPAC's teen 'Dream' comes true

Mount Fuji towers nearby, and the hills around are covered with beautiful tea fields, while occupying a huge, 21-hectare plot of greenery dotted with theaters and rehearsal spaces is the home base of Shizuoka Performing Arts Center.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 12, 2014

Chi-na aims to win fans over one step at a time

For many musicians, dreams of success take the form of a big break: perhaps a major label record contract, a lucrative tour deal or a barnstorming festival set. However, a quick fix isn't the style of Tokyo indie quintet Chi-na, who is gradually growing in stature through a steady process of connecting...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 12, 2014

Only 7.4 percent of Japanese companies have female leader

Fewer than one in 14 Japanese companies has a female president, a survey has shown, and more than half of the women inherited the role from a relative.
BUSINESS
Aug 12, 2014

Mori Building sells debt to fund projects in run-up to Olympics

Mori Building Co. sold its longest bond ever as Japan's biggest closely held developer plans ¥1 trillion ($9.8 billion) in projects in the decade that will include the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society / CHILDREN LEFT BEHIND
Aug 11, 2014

Staff at children's homes strive to give kids their all

For Chikako Ishigo, 70, working at a children's home has not been as worrying or troublesome a job as one might imagine.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech / ADVANCES IN PROGRESS
Aug 11, 2014

Future appears bright for indoor veggie farms

A 1,260-sq.-meter factory in Kashiwanoha, Chiba Prefecture, is kept extremely clean, shutting out external air because it affects product quality, and workers wear clean-room suits and take a warm shower before entering the facility.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Aug 9, 2014

Gazing in awe on nature's flying bullet, the brown booby

"Sleekly elegant" is a befitting way to describe a catwalk model in the fashion world, suitable even for an ultramodern city tower or a bullet train, and appropriate on the race circuit for describing a pleasingly aerodynamic two-seater convertible. It is a surprisingly relevant way too for describing...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society / CHILDREN LEFT BEHIND
Aug 8, 2014

Once state support ends, life is difficult to navigate

The main reason youths are placed in children's institutions is abuse and neglect, but experts say society knows little about the situations these children face.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 8, 2014

Nuclear disarmament is a humanitarian imperative

The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement's involvement in the nuclear debate — specifically the humanitarian impact — dates back to the moment the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat