Environment

With the population increasingly aging, the production of adult diapers has reached a record high, leading to an increase in waste. According to sources, the Environment Ministry plans to create guidelines to encourage municipalities to recycle used adult diapers from next fiscal year, hoping to reduce waste by making effective use of used diapers.

An international team including researchers from the Okinawa Prefecture-based Okinawa Churashima Foundation and Australia has for the first time successfully completed an ultrasound scan of a living whale shark’s ovary.

Participants in an environment forum meeting between Japan and China on Sunday discussed the issue of marine plastic pollution.The annual meeting, the 12th of its kind, brought together a total of 800 participants, mainly company and government representatives of the two countries.

Tourists have big shoes. Climate scientists and other experts suggest that the size of the footprint — carbon and otherwise — left by global travelers is about four times larger than previously thought. Sustainable tourism is a hot topic, and in light of Japan’s goals to grow the number of inbound tourists to 40 million by 2020 and all the way up to 60 million a decade later, it’s one that deserves attention. Fortunately, there are ways to ease the environmental impact of the tourism boom, and they’re not limited to planting trees to offset carbon emissions (though that’s a good place to start).

The government has drawn up a planned outline of disaster reduction measures in response to several large natural disasters this year, including steps to prevent airports from being inundated.

China, Japan, South Korea and ASEAN will work together to address the issue of plastic waste in the ocean, which is affecting fishery, tourism and possibly people's health.

A team of nuclear experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency urged Japan this week to reach a decision quickly on what to do with treated water that contains low toxicity radioactive tritium, which is accumulating at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.

Dealing with various climate change-related issues is likely to be one of the top points of discussion at the Group of 20 Leaders’ Summit in Osaka next June, Jacques Attali, one of the world’s most prominent nongovernmental organization leaders, said in an interview with The Japan Times on Tuesday.

Falling numbers hurt towns where fishing is closely intertwined with local culture.

The Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry will embark on an investigation into the extent to which tiny plastic pieces, known as microplastics, are contained in sewage from ships in order to prevent marine pollution, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.