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From Pacific saury to seaweed to shrimp, ocean warming stemming from climate change is having an adverse effect on marine species all over the world. The impact in waters around Japan is showing up in myriad ways: decreased sizes of species including mackerel and anchovy in the country’s typically rich eastern coastal waters, a dramatic drop in konbu (kelp) yields off Hokkaido and an increase in hybrid species of pufferfish, posing concerns for catches of the delicacy. The issue is likely to become more pronounced as warming continues — ocean temperatures are rising four times faster now than in the late 1980s, a recent study by the University of Reading shows. And yet, seafood is a vital part of the Japanese diet and a crucial source of sustenance for billions around the world. On the whole, it’s also more environmentally friendly than land-based animal proteins like beef, pork and even chicken, while seaweed is potentially a major carbon sink, making the industry an important part of decarbonization efforts. Faced with these challenges, researchers in Japan aren’t sitting still. At home and abroad, a series of aquaculture projects are underway that aim to improve the sustainability of aquaculture and boost production even against the strong current of climate change. “The natural stock of fish and shrimp is not increasing and may be decreasing due to climate change and overfishing and some pollution of the environment,” says Ikuo Hirono, a professor with the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology. “However, the world population is increasing, so we need more and more animal protein sources.” Invasive fish While seafood produced through aquaculture compares favorably with beef, poultry and pork in terms of emissions, the industry still accounts for 0.49% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to a 2020 study in Nature. Not all types of aquaculture are climate friendly, either. Farmed shrimp, for example, produces 12 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent for each kilogram of food — less than a quarter of that produced by beef production but double that of poultry. There are also concerns about pollution via fish farms, as nutrient-rich water that leaks from them into the natural environment can cause severe ecological damage. Ikuo Hirono, a professor with the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, has helped spearhead the Thai Fish Project since 2019. | JICA Even with those issues, there’s little hope of reducing reliance on aquaculture, particularly in tropical nations. A separate study published in Nature in 2020 shows that the catch potential in some tropical exclusive economic zones is expected to fall by as much as 40% by 2050 from the 2000s under an extremely high emissions scenario, due to warming, a reduction in the ocean’s pH level, deoxygenation and sea-level rise. With aquaculture making up over half of all seafood production, the impetus to improve sustainability is clear. Since 2019, Hirono has helped spearhead the Thai Fish Project, an initiative funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Japan Science and Technology Agency that aims to boost the sustainability of aquaculture in the Southeast Asian nation. It’s not a small undertaking — in 2019, Thailand ranked 10th in the world in aquaculture production in 2022, making the sector an important part of the country’s economy. Seafood is also a key food source in the developing nation, with 56% of Thais saying they eat fish one to four times a week, and another 19% five or more times a week, according to 2023 data from Statista. But all of that production has come with a major drawback: invasive species. Thai fish farms have typically raised tilapia, a fish native to Africa, and whiteleg shrimp, which comes from South America, both of which are among the most farmed species in the world, according to Hirono. Tilapia is popular as a farmed species in part because it can be raised in freshwater, making it possible to convert agricultural land into aquaculture ponds. Whiteleg shrimp, on the other hand, are omnivorous, making them cheaper to feed, Hirono says. A worker moves fish from a truck filled with water in Bangkok in April 2024. Aquaculture is an important part of Thailand’s economy. | Bloomberg The potential for specimens to escape into the wild poses a threat to natural ecosystems. A report by researchers involved with the Thai Fish Project noted that whiteleg shrimp has been found in Thai waters since it was introduced to the country through aquaculture in the 1990s, causing the spread of an exotic pathogen and increasing competition with native shrimp species. “Some of the tilapia and shrimp escaped from cultured ponds and they already reproduced in nature,” Hirono said. “Such an escaped alien species gives a lot of negative impact to the native species.” Hirono added that, at the government level, there are no plans to curtail production of these species despite the mishaps, because the industry is simply too important for food security and the economy. So Hirono’s project decided to focus on raising species native to Southeast Asia, namely Asian seabass and banana shrimp. The overarching goal is to improve productivity while employing sustainable practices that limit the impact of infectious diseases and preserve the natural environment. The initiative also promotes the education of young researchers with an eye toward the future. The challenges with raising Asian seabass had been finding the right feed and solving issues related to breeding. So far, the results for the project, which was due to wrap up in 2025 but was recently extended for another five years, have been promising. Scientists successfully developed a new type of seabass feed to lower costs while also making the fish more nutritious for consumers. It’s also passing taste tests and is gaining interest for its commercial potential among Japanese businesses, according to JICA. For banana shrimp, researchers have achieved artificial insemination, which is necessary to make genetic selections to improve growth and disease resistance. This posed a significant hurdle because the species is highly sensitive to

Free high school education is Nippon Ishin no Kai’s signature policy, and party co-leader Seiji Maehara is pushing for it hard in budget committee hearings. Though the effort pits him against Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, the political rivals are actually on good terms with each other personally, thanks to a shared love — and deep knowledge — of trains. “Maehara-san and I take various trains together. We’re not trying to make trains that just run aimlessly. We want to make trains that people want to ride,” Ishiba said while sharing a train to Kyoto’s Mt. Hiei together with Maehara in 2020. Ishiba, who was then considered an outsider in the Liberal Democratic Party, was offering his views on how to make Kyoto trains more attractive to tourists. He said he liked Kyoto’s introduction of a nihonshu train to bring more people on board. Maehara, then a member of the Democratic Party for the People, is from Kyoto and represents a district there. Source link

Juan Soto, who inked a record $765 million, 15-year deal to join the New York Mets in December, made an instant impact in his first spring training game with his new team, belting a 426-foot home run in his first at-bat. Soto, who jumped to the success-starved Mets from the glamorous crosstown rival Yankees after helping the Bronx Bombers reach last year’s World Series, staked the Mets to a 1-0 lead over the Houston Astros in the first inning of their eventual 6-2 win in Florida. “It was pretty incredible, I’m not going to lie,” said Mets manager Carlos Mendoza, who placed Soto second in the lineup between Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso. Source link

Riyadh – Japan’s Forever Young hunted down Hong Kong racing royalty Romantic Warrior to win the the $20 million Saudi Cup, the world’s richest race, in Riyadh on Saturday. Romantic Warrior is the highest-earning racehorse of all time and arrived at the Saudi capital with almost $23 million in the bank. The seven-year-old gelding looked destined to add to his prize pot when he went well clear around the home turn in his first-ever outing on dirt. Under his regular New Zealand jockey James McDonald, Romantic Warrior set sail for home with dollar signs flashing. But Forever Young, with Ryusei Sakai on board, was in hot pursuit. The pair relentlessly closed the three length-gap and passed Romantic Warrior 50 meters from the post. “Unbelievable,” beamed winning trainer Yoshito Yahagi. “Romantic Warrior is such a strong horse, we respected him, but our horse was better today. “When Romantic Warrior passed us, I thought we could still come back.” Source link

I’ve been thinking quite a bit about nabe (hot pot) recently, but I didn’t expect my search for new flavors to lead me to the Iranian city of Tabriz. Located in northwestern Iran and nestling near the southern end of the Caucasus mountain range in the Quru River valley, Tabriz isn’t far from the borders of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Turkey. Rich with history, the markets of the Tabriz Bazaar are some of the oldest in the world, offering a smorgasbord of just about everything, from famed Persian rugs to local delicacies you can eat to your heart’s content, especially if you like meatballs. Tabriz meatballs, known as kofta tabrizi, are larger than life, often slightly bigger than a tennis ball (although smaller, still substantial, individual sizes are common, too). They contain a proportion of rice and can be stuffed with anything from commonplace nuts and dried fruit to outlandish fillings, such as whole chickens. Source link

Last year, the global demand for matcha put an unprecedented strain on Japan’s tea industry, and it’s likely to happen again. Murmurs of the “matcha shortage” have been circulating since last fall, when well-known Kyoto tea companies Ippodo and Marukyu Koyamaen announced purchase limits on the finely ground tea powder for the first time. Tourists and local consumers found many stores completely sold out of certain products from these companies and others. The products that are scarce or sold out are mostly first-flush matcha (tea powder made from the first harvest of tea leaves of Camellia sinensis, the plant species that matcha is made from), which was historically used only for tea ceremonies but is now preferred by international consumers for everyday use. This matcha is harvested only once a year, so it’s especially limited. But the demand is still booming for other types as well. Source link

When U.S. President Donald Trump sat down to lunch with his Japanese counterpart this month, talk turned quickly to how Tokyo could help realize a decades-old proposal to unlock gas in Alaska and ship it to U.S. allies in Asia. Trump and his energy tsar Doug Burgum framed the venture as a way for Japan to replace Middle East energy shipments and address its trade imbalance with the U.S., according to two officials briefed on the closed-door talks. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba — eager to ensure a positive first meeting and stave off damaging U.S. tariffs — struck an optimistic note about the Alaska LNG project despite Tokyo’s doubts about its viability. Source link

Tomoka Shibasaki’s short stories don’t run on human time; they run on architectural time. In her curious collection “A Hundred Years and a Day,” released on Feb. 25 in English with translations by Polly Barton, the stories seem indifferent to their human characters. The 34 stories, each somewhere between three to seven pages long, take place mostly in Japan, and occasionally in other unnamed countries. Characters, too, are usually unnamed (“my grandmother,” “student one,” “the wife”), which gives the stories an allegorical feel, as if each highly specific narrative could also be easily generalized. A Hundred Years and a Day, by Tomoka Shibasaki. Translated by Polly Barton. 184 pages, STONE BRIDGE PRESS, fiction. Source link

Matsue, Shimane Pref. – The skies over Shimane are always dramatic, almost supernaturally so. It’s befitting an area that’s known as “Land of the Gods,” the setting of many Shinto myths and home to the Izumo Taisha Grand Shrine where all kami are believed to congregate once a year in October. On this particular day in December, I’m in front of Matsue Castle, when a starling murmuration swirls over my head and thunder sounds once. I’m in the middle of listening to a ghost story about a girl buried in the castle walls (a semi-legendary practice of human sacrifice known as hitobashira) from 19th-century writer and Japan transplant Lafcadio Hearn. Then, a second interruption comes not from the sky but in the form of two cats running and meowing straight at Naoko Fuji, my guide and storyteller. I can hear distant meows as I follow Fuji, paper chōchin lantern in hand, to a nearby Inari Shrine populated by fox statues. As she tells us another story about a mother coming back from the grave to feed her child that’s been buried alive, the feral felines sound almost babylike. Source link

HONG KONG – As President Donald Trump uses tariffs as a weapon in his quest to even the score on trade with the world, Asia is emerging as target No. 1. And it’s not just because of China. Asia is home to seven countries that run the biggest trade surpluses with the United States, Trump’s go-to yardstick. It has some of the biggest exporters of goods that Trump promised to tax, like Japanese and South Korean cars, Taiwanese chips and Indian drugs. Many of the region’s countries have become top destinations for Chinese goods and investment, evidence that Trump cites to accuse China of using a backdoor into the U.S. market. Trump’s plan to upend the rules of world trade could hurt Asia because the region relies so much on the global economy. But it will also scramble supply chains and trade flows that are already undergoing change as companies have sought alternatives to China as the source of their goods. Source link