Jul 10, 2023 (ABC News) - As the world increasingly looks for clean, reliable energy, there's growing debate in Japan about using its vast geothermal reserves.
It may seem like the perfect green energy solution, but critics say it too could come at an environmental cost.
North Asia correspondent James Oaten has travelled to the southern island of Kyushu for this special report.
Large Typhoon No. 25 was moving northwest through waters near the Ogasawara Islands at 3 a.m. on September 18, with the storm expected to bring strong winds, high waves and heavy rain to the islands before approaching the Izu Islands and Kanto from September 20 into September 21.
A black bear has been spotted near one of the most popular hiking trails on Mount Takao in western Tokyo, prompting authorities to urge visitors to take precautions ahead of the five-day Silver Week holiday and the approaching autumn foliage season.
Starbucks is considering selling a majority stake in its Japanese business, potentially valued at as much as $3 billion, or about 470 billion yen, as the U.S. coffee chain seeks to concentrate management resources on its struggling North American operations.
Japan's Halloween Jumbo Lottery went on sale nationwide on September 16, offering a combined top payout of 400 million yen for the first prize and its adjacent-number prizes.
A new top-tier "Supreme Class" offering fully private compartments above the level of Green Car service will debut on the Tokaido and Sanyo Shinkansen on October 1, with passengers able to experience the new seating at a demonstration booth at Shin-Osaka Station.
A rare pod of around 50 dolphins was spotted swimming through the Seto Inland Sea off Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, with dozens of dorsal fins repeatedly breaking the surface as the animals moved together.
Tesla unveiled its Cybercab in Japan for the first time on September 11, showcasing an AI-powered autonomous taxi designed without a steering wheel or pedals.
Large volumes of floodwater poured into the Metropolitan Area Outer Underground Discharge Channel in Kasukabe, Saitama Prefecture, following heavy rain on September 7, prompting the massive underground flood-control facility known as the "Underground Temple" to go into operation.
Fluorescent lamps that have illuminated Japanese homes and workplaces for decades are approaching the end of production, with Panasonic preparing to wind down a business it has operated since 1951 while experts warn that incorrectly replacing some fixtures with LEDs could create a fire risk.
Osaka-based spray nozzle maker IKEUCHI is expanding applications for its proprietary "Dry Fog," an ultra-fine mist that can cool, humidify and create visual effects without leaving surfaces wet, with the technology now being used in factories, livestock farming, crop cultivation and tourist attractions in Japan and overseas.
Japanese companies are moving closer to commercializing photonics-electronics convergence technology that replaces part of conventional electrical data transmission with optical signals, potentially allowing huge volumes of data to move with lower latency while sharply reducing power consumption as artificial intelligence drives rapid growth in electricity demand from data centers.
A new generation of optoelectronic integration technology developed over four decades by Japanese companies is moving closer to commercialization, offering a way to transmit huge volumes of data with low latency while sharply reducing the electricity consumed by data centers as artificial intelligence drives explosive growth in computing demand.
Dyson CameraJet™ turns the smart toothbrush into an active sensing product, making useful feedback and clear privacy design part of the same engineering brief.
