Japan has one of the highest installed renewable energy capacities in the world. The country is also one of the world’s largest consumers of energy. Lacking its own fossil fuel resources, it relies on imports for nearly all of its supply. This dependence on imports makes the country vulnerable to …
Japan is well-equipped to cope with natural hazards but faces a far greater risk from disasters than other developed nations due to its high exposure to earthquakes and floods, a U.N. University report has shown. Japan ranked 17th among 171 countries surveyed, while many other developed nations placed below the …
Japan’s space agency has announced that it will release Kenya’s first satellite — for no fee — from its Kibo laboratory at the International Space Station. The move, announced Thursday, is expected to take place sometime in fiscal 2017, which begins next April. Deploying the University of Nairobi’s microsatellite, which …
Japan is already preparing for the 2020 Olympics, and organizers have decided to use e-wastes to create gold, silver and bronze medals. Japan plans to recycle discarded electronics to create Olympic medals for Tokyo 2020. Organizers of the next Olympic Games, which will be held in Tokyo, will tap the …
Typhoon Mindulle lashed the greater Tokyo area on Monday, dumping heavy rain and leaving at least one person dead and 29 injured in storm-related incidents. Storm water coursed down usually placid rivers and left many streets flooded in the Kanto region. As of Monday evening the typhoon was heading north, …
Around 10,000 tons of contaminated water have pooled in underground trenches around the Nos. 1 to 4 reactor buildings of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, according to the plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) has no immediate plan to remove the …
The Japanese Government, through its agency, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), has donated solar power worth $9.7 million to the Federal Government to boost electricity in the country. The Ambassador of Japan to Nigeria, Mr Sadanobu Kusaoke, disclosed this in Abuja on Tuesday during the inauguration of the project. Kusaoke …
Heavy rain drenched the Japanese capital on Monday as Typhoon Mindulle swept in, bringing floods that suspended train services and high winds that forced airlines to cancel hundreds of flights. The category one typhoon, the weakest on a scale for storms, dumped more than 10 cm (4 inches) of rain …
The Japanese government has donated five million US dollars to help the World Food Programme (WFP) provide food assistance between September and November 2016 to over 300,000 drought-affected people in the four worst affected countries in southern Africa. Mozambique will receive the largest portion of this donation, with WFP using …
Toyota, Tesla, Vestas, DONG Energy and Panasonic are among the top ranked companies in the first ever Carbon Clean 200 list, which claims the world’s greenest large companies are outperforming their more polluting counterparts by as much as three to one. Published today, the inaugural Clean 200 ranks the largest …
Rising sea levels, extreme temperatures and soaring humidity could make it impossible for athletes to compete in many major cities around the world, study warns Rising temperatures will radically limit the number of cities able to host the summer Olympics by 2084, according to a study by the University of …
Elephant ivory has long been used worldwide to make a host of items from jewelry, piano keys and billiard balls to art and personal seals. Japan, which used ivory to make hanko (personal seals), was one of the biggest importers in the 1970s and 1980s, bringing in about 950 tons …
Heatstroke and other related illnesses caused 18,671 people to be taken to hospitals by ambulance in July and caused 29 deaths, according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency. Another 353 incurred severe heat-related injuries, it said Wednesday. The total is down 5,896 from the record high of 24,567 set …
Researchers who analyzed a history of tsunamis along the Pacific coast of Japan's Tohoku region have learned that seawalls higher than 5 meters reduce damage and death, while coastal forests also play an important role in protecting the public. The analysis was performed by researchers at Tohoku University, Maryland Institute …
The Pacific coast of the Tohoku region of Japan experiences repeated tsunamis, with the most recent events having occurred in 1896, 1933, 1960, and 2011. These events have caused large loss of life and damage throughout the coastal region. There is uncertainty about the degree to which seawalls reduce deaths …
This paper presents a study on short-term ensemble flood forecasting specifically for small dam catchments in Japan. Numerical ensemble simulations of rainfall from the Japan Meteorological Agency nonhydrostatic model (JMA-NHM) are used as the input data to a rainfall–runoff model for predicting river discharge into a dam. The ensemble weather …
About 1,000 people were taken to hospitals apparently due to heat stroke or heat exhaustion as a heat wave covered Japan on Saturday, according to a Kyodo News tally. Many locations across the archipelago Saturday logged their highest temperature this year, with 113 of the 929 weather observation spots nationwide …
Japan and South Korea have both taken steps to block certain imports of U.S. wheat after unapproved genetically-modified (GMO) plants from Monsanto Co seeds were found growing in Washington state, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said on Monday. Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry said …
An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.4 struck 20 kms (12.4 miles) off the east coast of Japan on Wednesday night, the United States Geological Survey reported. The quake, with an epicenter 47 kms below sea-level, struck off the coast of Ibaragi prefecture, northeast of Tokyo. There were no …
RIO DE JANEIRO (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Contamination as people and agriculture crowd around water sources has hiked the cost of water treatment by 50 percent in some major cities, a study said on Monday, making it harder to provide safe drinking water for a growing urban population. An expansion …
The Sakurajima volcano in Kyushu Japan had an explosive eruption early Tuesday, spewing volcanic ash 5,000 meters into the sky, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. It is the first eruption projecting to such an altitude since August 2013 for the volcano within kilometers of downtown Kagoshima, a city of 606,000 …
