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April 05, 2025
 

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ENVIRONMENT

New Zealand already generates more than 80% of its electricity from renewable sources, and aspires to reach 100% by 2030.
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 8, 2023
New Zealand ties up with BlackRock in drive for fully green power
The deal will supercharge efforts by New Zealand to become one of the first countries in the world to achieve a 100% renewable electricity supply.
Graphite, now deemed an essential mineral by the U.S., is the single biggest ingredient by weight in the batteries that go into electric vehicles and the power grid. It is also used in a variety of defense applications.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 8, 2023
Biden deploys Pentagon to beat climate change and China
A $37.5 million grant to Graphite One acts as a relaxed form of venture capital as the White House supports nascent parts of the domestic cleantech supply chain.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 7, 2023
Scandal-hit ex-LDP member a major backer of renewable energy
Masatoshi Akimoto opposes building new nuclear reactors or replacing current ones, and has said that wind power in particular has much potential.
As synonymous with summer as fireworks and sweltering temperatures, mosquitoes are ubiquitous in Japan. However, will rising temperatures lead more dangerous species of the bug to call Japan home?
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife / Longform
Aug 7, 2023
The mosquito: Summer’s unwelcome little bloodsucker
An outbreak of dengue in Yoyogi Park nine years ago could be a sign of things to come if the wrong mosquito makes it into Japan.
A camp of informal gold miners in Los Amigos, in the Madre de Dios region, Peru. The Peruvian government estimates that illegal miners dump about 180 metric tons of mercury in Madre de Dios annually.
WORLD
Aug 7, 2023
Gold mining in the Amazon poisoning scores of threatened species
Miners in southeast Peru use mercury to find gold — inadvertently contaminating hundreds of species native to the area.
A highway runs through Saudi Arabia's arid landscape. A new horticulture project marks the biggest food-tech investment for the country, whose extreme summer temperatures have long left it reliant on food imports.
WORLD
Aug 7, 2023
Saudi city of future enlists Dutch help to grow crops in desert
The Netherlands is now the world’s second-largest agricultural exporter after the U.S., despite being one of Europe’s smallest nations.
A man makes his way through a flooded road after the rains and floods brought by remnants of Typhoon Doksuri, in Zhuozhou, Hebei province, China, on Thursday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 4, 2023
China’s ‘sponge cities’ are not built for extreme flood events
China has invested billions of dollars in recent years to protect against extreme rainfall after a 2012 flood in Beijing killed 79 people.
BTS fans at an event in Seoul on June 17
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Aug 3, 2023
K-pop fans fight big coal to protect beach made famous by BTS
Environmental groups are aiming to harness the immense influence that K-pop enthusiasts have to fight climate change.
Storage tanks for radioactive water at Tokyo Electric Power Co's tsunami-crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2023
No change in plan to release treated water, minister says
Japan's industry minister says there is no change to plan to start releasing treated water from Fukushima nuclear plant this summer.
A woman walks on the bottom of a dried pond on a hot day in Mauharia, India, in May 2022.
ENVIRONMENT
Jul 29, 2023
Warming world 'brutalizes' women as heat waves deepen gender divide
The impacts of rising heat are disproportionately dangerous and costly to women — be it at home or on the job — according to a new report.
Wind-catchers in Iran's central city of Yazd. The tall, chimney-like towers are just one of the engineering marvels inhabitants have developed to adapt to the harsh desert climate in central Iran.
WORLD
Jul 28, 2023
Iran's ancient 'wind catchers' beat the heat naturally
Unlike energy-guzzling air-conditioners, the tall, chimney-like towers are cost and carbon-free.
Danish ambassador Peter Taksoe-Jensen hopes for a "ketchup effect" in the development of Japan's offshore wind potential.
ENVIRONMENT
Jul 27, 2023
Unlocking Japan's offshore wind potential requires change in mindset
While Japan has made progress in expanding its offshore wind power, Denmark’s ambassador to Japan says that the pace of change is still too slow.
A man catches a fish along the bank overlooking the Singapore skyline shrouded by haze in 2015.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jul 27, 2023
As El Nino fuels fire risk, Southeast Asia faces haze crisis
Officials met in Singapore last month, where they vowed to work together to monitor fires and curb pollution.
Jingu Gaien is a famous landmark, park and sports center in Minato Ward, Tokyo. 
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 26, 2023
Tokyo's tree-razing drama shouldn't stymie transformation
Residents are raging over a redevelopment plan. But while other cities become stuck in time, Tokyo's best projects can combine the spirit of the past with the hope for the future.
JAPAN
Jul 25, 2023
Japan to test fire ant sniffer dog for first time
The government has designated fire ants as an invasive species requiring emergency measures due to the insect's potential for damage.
School children walking on a road submerged by sea water at Timbulsloko village in Demak, Indonesia.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jul 24, 2023
'Slow disaster': Indonesians in sinking village forced to adapt
More than 200 people remain in one of Indonesia's fastest sinking areas, an alarming symbol of how climate change could upend coastal communities everywhere.
Excavators in a pit at a nickel mine in Morowali Regency, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, on July 10
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Jul 24, 2023
Indonesian nickel mine takes green steps as environmental concerns mount
Nickel production in Indonesia is particularly carbon intensive — every ton of the metal-equivalent produced emits an average of 58.6 tons of carbon-dioxide-equivalent, data has shown.
Clothes displayed at Shein’s headquarters in Singapore
BUSINESS
Jul 21, 2023
Fast fashion report cards show what’s really in your clothes
Consumers’ drive for quantity over quality is transforming the world’s textile industry, sparking an almost doubling in global fiber production over the past two decades.
Komeito leader Natsuo Yamaguchi waits ahead of a high-level meeting with Chinese Communist Party officials at Beijing's Great Hall of the People in December 2017.
JAPAN
Jul 15, 2023
Japan ruling bloc lawmakers facing hurdles to China visit plans
Trips to China by Komeito leader and senior LDP official both put on ice over Chinese anger at planned release of treated Fukushima water.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 23, 2023
World’s biggest wind power projects are in crisis just when world needs them most
Costs for materials and services have spiked, while rising interest rates make it more expensive for developers and utility companies to take on debt.
U.S. tourist arrested after bringing a handgun into Japan
Hyogo police believe the handgun a U.S. tourist inadvertently brought into Japan slipped through security procedures at Kansai International Airport in Osaka Prefecture.
3D printer used to construct train station building in Japan
A train station building (front) is assembled from parts printed using 3D printer technology, in Arida, Wakayama Prefecture, on Wednesday.
Japan’s leader didn’t read the job description
Prime Minister and ruling Liberal Democratic Party leader Shigeru Ishiba is facing a political funding scandal that has damaged his reputation and sparked speculation that internal efforts to remove him are underway.
Japan promises 'bold and speedy' response to Trump’s surprise 24% tariffs
U.S. President Donald Trump unveils new U.S. tariffs at the White House in Washington on Wednesday.
Tottori takes a bold leap forward in the arts
The city of Kurayoshi in Tottori Prefecture celebrated the opening of its public art museum with festivities such as a parade that drew 1,000 revelers.
Haruki Murakami TV adaptation revisits 30 years of watershed moments
Though Haruki Murakami's trademark whiff of offbeat existentialism is threaded throughout NHK's "After the Quake," the final episode — conceived as a sequel to the story "Super-Frog Saves Tokyo" — is the most stylized, featuring an anthropomorphic talking frog (voiced by Non) and his erstwhile associate Katagiri (Koichi Sato).
Nintendo to launch the Switch 2 on June 5
The controllers for the Switch 2 will attach to the console magnetically rather than sliding on rails as with the original device.
A new human trafficking trend emerges from Myanmar scam centers
Victims of scam centers who were tricked or trafficked into working in Myanmar gather at a compound inside KK Park, a fraud center on the country's border with Thailand, after a multinational crackdown in February.
A Canadian made a weekend trip to Costco a Japanese pastime
Under the watchful eye of Ken Theriault, Costco representative director and Japan country manager, the American membership-model wholesaler has flourished in Japan.

Podcast

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

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan
By Johan Brooks

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