Tag - niigata

 
 

NIIGATA

Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings' Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power station in Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture, in November 2022. The plant was shuttered in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima disaster, and has sat idle since.
JAPAN
Jun 23, 2024
World’s largest nuclear plant sits idle while energy needs soar
The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant has the potential capacity to power more than 13 million households.
The Oku knife "hooks or wraps elegantly along the edge of a plate or board," designer Kathleen Reilly says.
LIFE / Style & Design
Jun 22, 2024
A playfully subversive knife from a rising Scottish design star
The Scottish artist fuses East and West in a new knife design crafted in and inspired by Niigata Prefecture’s Tsubame-Sanjo.
Eschewing the comfort of Tokyo’s air-conditioned museums, the inconvenient art movement draws viewers into the countryside to see artworks such as Christian Boltanski’s “Les Regards.”
CULTURE / Art
Jun 7, 2024
A list of Japan’s remote art sites
Get off the beaten path this summer and discover art tucked away in the farthest reaches of Japan.
A farmer plants seedlings in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture. Japan’s self sufficiency rate for rice is nearly 100%, compared with 38% for food overall, on a calorie basis.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / OUR PLANET
Apr 28, 2024
Climate change, chalky grains and the risks for Japan’s rice farmers
As Japan’s rice farmers prepare for a new planting season, many will be hoping that this summer brings a reprieve from 2023’s brutal weather conditions.
A group of plaintiffs in a lawsuit demanding that they be recognized as Minamata disease patients hold a news conference in Niigata on Thursday following a ruling by the Niigata District Court.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 19, 2024
Japanese court orders damages over Niigata Minamata disease
Similar lawsuits have been filed at four district courts across the country.
The No. 6 and 7 reactors of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture
JAPAN
Apr 15, 2024
Tepco given OK to move fuel into Niigata reactor
Tepco is set to move fuel into the world's largest nuclear power plant, which has been idle since the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake.
Yayoi Kusama’s “Pumpkin,” once the victim of high waves that dragged it into the sea, sits at the end of a pier on the south side of Naoshima.
CULTURE / Art / Longform
Apr 6, 2024
Why is the most exciting art in Japan so hard to get to?
Japan has a unique movement of public art projects and festivals that are a slog to get to — by design. A writer examines the country's “inconvenient art."
Joel Vaudreuil's "When Adam Changes" won the grand prix at this year's Niigata International Animation Film Festival, the largest festival devoted to feature-length animation in Asia.
CULTURE / Film / CULTURE SMASH
Mar 28, 2024
Niigata film festival showcases cutting-edge overseas talent
The six-day event dedicated to feature-length animation presented a lineup of stories that were psychologically rich and emotionally dark.
Yoshifumi Murase, commissioner of the industry ministry's Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, (left) meets Niigata Gov. Hideyo Hanazumi on Thursday in Niigata Prefecture in an effort to seek understanding for restarting Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings' Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 22, 2024
Local support sought for Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant restart
A representative from an agency of the industry ministry highlighted the "severe" energy supply situation in eastern Japan.
Travel agency workers in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, take calls Tuesday for reservations for a government-subsidized tourism discount campaign.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Mar 12, 2024
How to get discount reservations for Hokuriku trips
The campaign is aimed at revitalizing the tourism industry in the region amid cancellations and a decrease in tourists following the Noto earthquake.
Homes destroyed in the New Year's Day earthquake line a road in Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture, on March 3.
JAPAN
Mar 9, 2024
Reservations open for subsidized trips to areas hit by Noto quake
Tours to Niigata, Toyama and Fukui prefectures sold out on a host of websites soon after the start Friday, displaying robust demand for the campaign.
An Ito Yokado store in the city of Fukushima. As part of its structural reform, Ito-Yokado will focus on urban areas including the Tokyo metropolitan area.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 10, 2024
Struggling unit of 7-Eleven's parent company to exit central and northern Japan
The Seven & I Holdings unit will close five of its 17 stores in the regions and hand over 11 to other supermarket operators.
Australian Tayler Paulsen and her Kiwi husband Neil managed to purchase a fully-equipped lodge in Myoko, Niigata Prefecture, for only AU$110,000 (about ¥10 million).
COMMUNITY / The Foreign Element
Jan 29, 2024
In Niigata, a winter (and real estate) wonderland
For Australians and New Zealanders facing expensive prices back home, Japan’s snow country is a hotbed for cheap real estate.
Wind turbines at an RWE wind farm off the coast of Great Yarmouth, England. RWE operates 3.3 gigawatts of offshore wind power in Europe.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 19, 2024
RWE plans further Japan offshore wind push after Niigata win
The German renewable energy company believes floating offshore projects will be the key to achieving the nation's goal of generating 45 GW of wind power by 2040.
The No. 6 and No. 7 reactors at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture in April 2021
JAPAN / Society
Dec 27, 2023
NRA lifts ban on operations at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant
When the plant will be reactivated remains uncertain as Tepco, the operator, needs to gain consent from local governments as well.
Japan is aiming to boost renewable power capacity to help achieve its 2050 goal of becoming carbon neutral.
BUSINESS
Dec 13, 2023
Three groups picked for second round of offshore wind power tender
Japan's offshore wind power market is set to grow as the government aims to have 10 gigawatts of offshore wind farm deals by 2030.
Eiko Takeuchi talks about a traffic jam during last winter’s heavy snow along National Route 8 in Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture, on Sept. 18.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Dec 11, 2023
Evacuation plans for nuclear incidents called into question
Effectiveness of preparations as a “last line of defense” to save residents in the event of a nuclear disaster are in doubt.
Blair Masters and Talisker Scott Hunter pose for a photo with their kei truck, nicknamed “KT,” outside Ebisu Circuit in Fukushima Prefecture.
LIFE / Travel / Longform
Nov 6, 2023
The little truck that could: A fresh way to tour Japan's north
Travelers have documented almost every corner of Japan. Perhaps a new kind of adventure would be doing those same journeys by different means.
Various aspects of Japan’s Sado Island — noh, taiko drumming, business investment and cultural regeneration projects — weave their way into “L’ile d’Or Kanemu-Jima,” with characters and cultures coming together in a melting pot of real-world political problems, theater styles and dark humor.
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 20, 2023
Cultures collide in Ariane Mnouchkine's Sado Island-inspired play
The Kyoto Prize-winning French theater director's latest production, "L’ile d’Or Kanemu-Jima," draws from her experiences in Japan, both old and new.
The number of skiers and snowboarders in Japan has been declining, and is down about 75% in 2020 from its peak in the late 1990s, according to the Japan Productivity Center.
BUSINESS
Oct 17, 2023
Skiing in Japan is getting a $1.4 billion upgrade
Ken Chan, the former Japan head of Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC, aims to invest $1.4 billion in the resort of Myoko, Niigata Prefecture.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?