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 …
Nissan Motor Co, Japan, seems in for rattling-bad times. A study by Japan's transport ministry has found that more people have died from carbon monoxide poisoning in Nissan cars since 1985 than in other Japanese makers' vehicles. Nissan has responded by offering free safety checks on its Skyline, Laurel and …
HOSPITAL bathrooms need no longer be breeding grounds for harmful bacteria. Researchers at the University of Tokyo have developed bathroom tiles and sanitary ware that can convert water into hydrogen peroxide, which has anti-bacterial properties. The researchers coated the tiles and sanitary ware with a thin film of titanium oxide, …
The Japanese quail is at the epicentre of a row between the agriculture ministry and the ministry of environment and forests (MEF). The quails were introduced in India during the '70s and were being utilised as a rural development pursuit. But MEF has now thrown a spanner in the works: …
THE Japanese have come up with a process that makes wood resistant to fire, decay and warping. Earlier attempts at improving one of the 3 attributes invariably worsened at least 1 of the other 2. In the new process developed at the Miyagi Prefectural Institute of Technology, the wood tissue …
A GROUP of adivasis in Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, are confident that they will no longer be cheated by the patwari. Shedding centuries of mathematical ignorance, the tribals have grasped the concepts of the weights and measures, with the help of origami -- traditionally associated with creating beautiful figures by folding …
KARACHI and Lahore, the 2 major metros in Pakistan, need extensive cosmetic surgery. A Panos Features report says that Karachi generates 5,000 tonnes of garbage a day and only about a 3rd of it is lifted. Holding their noses, the Japanese have very generously gifted around 100 refuse vans to …
JAPAN has commissioned the Monju fast-breeder reactor, heedless of severe criticism from Western anti-nuclear proliferation groups. The plant is a $6 billion prototype of a chain of reactors that Japan hopes will help meet its future energy demands. Environmentalists say that the new reactor breeds plutonium, a toxic material that …
SOMETIMES, eco-support comes unexpectedly from the most unlikely quarters -- this time round, cooperative movements. The pathbreakers are already here: the Kooperativa Forbundet, a large production, manufacturing and distribution cooperative in Sweden has an environment secretariat and a monitoring mechanism; the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool in Canada has established a Responsible …
THE WISDOM of public cautioning does work sometimes. Japan recently decided to gear down its controversial fast-breeder reactor programme, dogged by doomsayers both within the country and without. In its bid to make the country less dependent on oil imports, the Japanese government had come up with a plan to …
THE Chinese need no longer tot up on English to operate Microsoft Corp's famous user-friendly Windows programme. The Beijing Stone Group Co has developed Chinese-language software that can be used with this programme, which also includes wordprocessing. Tentatively named Mate for Windows, or Win-Mate, the software will retail for about …
YEARS of government protection and a ban on imports had so far insulated Japanese rice farmers from foreign competition. Now, however, they face double trouble -- emergency imports of foreign rice by the Japanese government to tide over a shortfall in production. The imports coincide with a decision to allow …
PEOPLE paralysed because of spinal injuries need not give up hope. Two independent studies reported in the British journal Nature (Vol 367, No 6459) show that damaged nerve tissue can be repaired, at least partly. In one study, scientists from Kyoto University in Japan used rat foetal tissue transplants to …
A JAPANESE company has developed a device to discourage pigeons from perching on statues, temples and other buildings and control the menace of pigeon droppings. Called a "bird stopper", the device works on a recent discovery that the homing characteristics of pigeons are influenced by the earth's magnetic field (New …
A JAPANESE company has introduced a bathing system that helps conserve water. The Full Time Bath enables the same water to be used for upto a month of body-scrubbing. The computer-controlled system, equipped with double-filtration and anti-bacterial function, keeps the recycled water as sparkling clean as tap water. The company …
THE GROWING global market for organ transplants is likely to receive a boost. A Japanese government advisory committee has proposed that organs from persons certified as brain dead should be allowed to be removed, according to reports in the country's press. Japan is the only major market in the world …
JAPAN'S ministry of international trade and industry, in collaboration with major Japanese firms and universities, has committed $30 million over four years to research "cold fusion". The theory holds that hydrogen atoms can undergo fusion at room temperatures in small rods of palladium saturated with deuterium, the heavy form of …
The visit in mid-December of a delegation from the Japanese International Nature Farming Research Centre (INFRC), gave a big boost to organic farmers in India. The Japanese are proponents of a high-technology alternative -- the Effective Microorganism Method (EMM). INFRC president Teruo Higa explained EMM involves the use of cultures …
HIT BY a severe recession, Japanese companies are reducing spending on research and development (R&D;) and many firms are scaling down low-priority or long-term projects in favour of those that offer immediate returns. Japan's ministry of international trade and industry surveyed 28 big companies and found their total spending would …
AFTER much dithering, Russia has joined Europe, Canada and Japan in the US-led international space station project. Russia will merge its Mir programme with the US Freedom programme for the project, the first of its kind. Orbiting where Russia's Mir 1 is currently deployed, the project will consist of the …
JAPANESE scientists have turned raw sewage into a a protein-rich creation that resembles beef in texture and hope to make it also taste and smell like beef. Mitsuyuki Ikeda, a member of the team, said: "We wanted to show that what comes out of the body can be recycled to …
