A government and Tokyo metropolitan task force held its first joint meeting with private-sector participants on March 25th to discuss countermeasures for a potential large-scale eruption of Mount Fuji that could blanket central Tokyo in volcanic ash and severely disrupt daily life.
A team of divers conducted an investigation toward a depth of 100 meters on March 20th inside the Inazumi Underwater Limestone Cave in Bungoono, Oita Prefecture, where a landscape dating back hundreds of millions of years is believed to remain untouched.
A 1,400-year-old piece of pottery excavated from an ancient burial mound in Himeji shows clear paw prints, raising the possibility that they are the oldest known traces of a cat in Japan, suggesting the animal may have been present earlier than previously believed.
The breeding season for the Oriental stork, a nationally designated Special Natural Monument, has begun, with chicks being born one after another in Hyogo Prefecture.
As cherry blossom season approaches, anticipation is building alongside the swelling buds, yet Japan’s beloved sakura are increasingly under threat from pests, aging trees, and disease, raising concerns about the future of the country’s most iconic spring symbol.
Japan's Environment Ministry has removed the red-crowned crane, a nationally designated Special Natural Monument, from its list of endangered species for the first time, citing a recovery in population driven by long-term conservation efforts, while also lowering the extinction risk classification of the crested ibis by one level as its numbers continue to rebound.
A new service enabling individuals to preserve their own cells for future medical treatment is set to launch in Japan, marking the country’s first offering of long-term iPS cell storage for personal use.
A rapidly advancing technology known as remote sensing—used to observe and analyze Earth from space—is opening new possibilities for predicting disasters and understanding environmental changes.