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July 12, 2026
 

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ENERGY

Bulk carriers float offshore from Singapore, on Feb. 19.
WORLD
Sep 19, 2024
The shadow fleet transporting sanctioned gas for Russia
In the short term it could provide some wartime profit, but Moscow’s ultimate goal is to triple LNG exports by 2030.
Candidates for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's presidential election take part in a debate in Tokyo on Saturday. Of the nine candidates, three — Takayuki Kobayashi, Taro Kono, and Shigeru Ishiba — have been particularly vocal with their views on the country's energy strategy.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 19, 2024
LDP presidential hopefuls face tough choices on Japan’s energy future
Candidates must decide what role nuclear power will play in the government’s long-term energy strategy.
The Ferrari of Charles Lecrerc, with a Shell logo placed prominently on the car's nose, during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday.
MORE SPORTS
Sep 18, 2024
Energy companies have spent $5.6 billion on ‘sportswashing’: report
The report says soccer, auto racing, rugby and golf are the sports most sponsored by energy companies.
A worker inspects solar panels in Gansu Province, China, in 2013.
BUSINESS / Tech
Sep 16, 2024
China’s U.S. solar plants undermine domestic push, report says
The report comes amid increasing scrutiny of Chinese investment in U.S.-based manufacturing of the solar tech key to the transition away from fossil fuels.
Solar panels and wind turbines at a power plant in Hami in China's Xinjiang region. The U.S. and other countries have described China’s actions against Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region, a key cog in the cleantech supply chain, as a genocidal campaign aimed at erasing an entire culture.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / OUR PLANET
Sep 16, 2024
How China’s dominance of solar and batteries is impacting Japan’s energy transition
China has thrown its industrial might behind cleantech, putting Japan in a tough spot as it weighs human rights concerns against its climate targets.
The government is considering financial support for liquefied natural gas operators to secure storage tanks in Japan and abroad.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Sep 12, 2024
Japan considers company support measures for long-term LNG contracts
Possible measures included financial support for securing storage tank and a new program to assist LNG buyers committing to long-term contracts.
California has ambitious climate policies. But the state should shift more green energy-related costs from electricity bills to taxes to promote fairness and sustainability.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 9, 2024
California’s crushing power bills challenge its climate goals
California is incredible, but making it livable, what with its droughts, floods, fault-lines and wildfires, has never been cheap.
The world’s largest system of hydroelectric power has been on standby since late 2022, when droughts drained the reservoirs that feed it. China's torrential downpours of the past few months are switching that immense machine back on.
COMMENTARY
Sep 6, 2024
A flood of hydro is washing coal from China’s grid
The world’s largest hydroelectric system, located in China, has been dormant since late 2022 due to droughts, but recent heavy rains are now reviving its operations.
Former International Energy Agency chief Nobuo Tanaka
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 6, 2024
LDP leadership race needs nuclear debate, ex-IEA chief says
Politicians fear stirring up public fears about nuclear catastrophes and hurting their chance of election, according to Nobuo Tanaka.
Former Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi speaks to reporters in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 3, 2024
Anti-nuclear energy stance fades among LDP presidential hopefuls
Candidates’ apparent shift in policy stance on nuclear power may be part of a strategy to win the leadership race.
The Nafoora oil field in Jakharrah, Libya, on Tuesday
BUSINESS
Sep 1, 2024
Libya’s political feud threatens return of oil supply chaos
The North African nation’s crude output was slashed in half last week amid a fight for control of the central bank.
Workers restore a high-voltage line destroyed in a Russian missile attack in Kyiv on Feb. 7.
WORLD
Aug 31, 2024
Ukrainians fear grim winter amid massive attacks on power plants
This week’s air raids on Kyiv and other cities across the country were the largest since Russia’s full-scale invasion began 2½ year ago.
For a billionaire with a mission to prevent climate change, “He greened the energy policy of the world’s fourth-biggest economy (Japan),” would make a hell of an epitaph for Mike Cannon-Brookes. 
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 29, 2024
An activist investor could green Japan for $700 million
For a billionaire with a mission to prevent climate change, “Greened the energy policy of the world’s fourth-biggest economy” would make a hell of an epitaph.
The government has decided to continue offering subsidies to curb electricity, gas and gasoline bills until the end of this year.
JAPAN
Aug 28, 2024
Japan to spend additional ¥980 billion to curb energy bills
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said that his Cabinet plans to approve the additional spending on Sept. 3.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris addresses the United Nations' COP28 climate change conference in Dubai on Dec. 2. Harris and Donald Trump are poles apart when it comes to climate change.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 27, 2024
America’s coming climate election
Clearly, the positions of the two U.S. presidential candidates on the climate crisis could not be more different.
A Rapidus factory construction site in Chitose, Hokkaido, on July 24. The plan to ramp up renewable energy usage in the region to 60% by 2030 is part of a larger concept known as “Hokkaido Valley.”
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Hokkaido
Aug 26, 2024
Hokkaido more plugged in to renewable energy than rest of Japan
The local government aims to raise its share of renewable energy to 60% from the current 40%, but Hokkaido’s grid needs to be upgraded first.
Tomoaki Kobayakawa, president of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (left), hands a set of documents to Kashiwazaki Mayor Masahiro Sakurai during their meeting in the city in Niigata Prefecture on Thursday.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Aug 22, 2024
Kashiwazaki mayor willing to OK restart of nuclear reactor
The willingness emerged after the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant’s operator shortened the time frame for the possible decommissioning of other reactors in the complex.
Solar cell panels over the water surface of Sirindhorn Dam in Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand. Four countries in Southeast Asia including Thailand account for more than 40% of solar module production capacity outside of China.
BUSINESS / Markets
Aug 21, 2024
Southeast Asia’s solar boom threatened by U.S.-China trade tension
Chinese firms that set up shop in the region over the last decade are being accused of skirting U.S. import levies on their home market.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida poses for a group photo with other regional leaders prior to the Asia Zero Emission Community (AZEC) leaders meeting in Tokyo in December.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 16, 2024
Japan’s energy diplomacy reflects global divide over how to reach net zero
Japan’s focus should be on advancing truly innovative and effective renewable technologies, rather than prolonging fossil fuel use.
A Plug Power hydrogen plant in Woodbine, Georgia
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Aug 14, 2024
Why almost nobody is buying green hydrogen
Many of the projects now touted with great fanfare by countries vying to become ‘the Saudi Arabia of hydrogen’ will likely never get built.
China’s demand for Soviet-style apartments shows limits to revival
Apartments built during a Soviet Union-inspired construction drive in the 1970s and 1980s tend to suffer from poor insulation and outdated plumbing, but they are seeing a revival in interest due to their attractive locations.
Japanese scientists identify neural mechanism that may explain why we dislike people
The aggressive mouse (left) used in the experiment and a mouse defending itself
Japanese payment processor’s collapse hits banks and restaurants
Zentoshin served around 200,000 shops, many of which rely on early payments to maintain cash flow, raising concerns over their financial stability following the disruption.
Over 70% of accommodations in Japan say they are understaffed amid tourism influx
The number of foreign visitors to Japan reached a high of 42.68 million in 2025.
Lenders seek $700 million after Japanese payments firm’s collapse
The financial failure of Osaka-based Zentoshin has left 63 creditors with claims totaling ¥115.16 billion, according to Tokyo Shoko Research.
Japan’s largest exhibition of women photographers rights a wrong in cultural history
Miwa Yanagi’s “Elevator Girl House” series skewers the superficiality of gender roles through staged images.
Over 70% of accommodations in Japan say they are understaffed amid tourism influx
The number of foreign visitors to Japan reached a high of 42.68 million in 2025.
‘Princess Mononoke’ comes alive in Super Kabuki staging
The “Princess Mononoke” adaptation was created under Shochiku’s Super Kabuki initiative, a modern form of kabuki with more technology in staging and open to pop culture collaborations.
The beating heart inside ‘Human Vapor’
Different forms of love and connection form the emotional backbone of Netflix’s “Human Vapor,” says actor Shun Oguri, who plays troubled detective Kenji Okamoto.
Japan bets on character IP to drive global growth
Born on social media platforms in 2022, Opanchu Usagi has become a major hit, especially among Generation Z.

Podcast

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

Longform

The Terasaka Rice Terraces are seen with Mount Buko in the background.
What Yokoze can teach Japan about rural revival
By Alex K.T. Martin

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