Prius Top Seller in Japan

ENN, January 12, 2010

Toyota Motor Corp.'s Prius was Japan's best-selling car last year, the first time a hybrid has topped annual sales.
The Japan Automobile Dealers Association reported nearly 209,000 Prius cars sold in 2009, with buyers willing to wait up to six months for deliveries. Hybrids make up about 10 percent of new vehicle sales in Japan. Read more...

Japan to bring back solar power subsidy for homes

ENN, December 24, 2008

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan plans to bring back subsidies for solar panel equipment from January, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said on Wednesday, as the world's fifth-biggest emitter struggles to cut its greenhouse gas emissions.
METI said the government would offer 9 billion yen ($99.6 million) in the first quarter of 2009 and possibly more in the fiscal year starting next April to foster use of solar panel equipment in homes. Read more...

Japan's first solar cargo ship

ENN, December 19, 2008

TOKYO - THE world's first cargo ship partly propelled by solar power took to the seas on Friday in Japan, aiming to cut fuel costs and carbon emissions when automakers ship off their exports.
Auriga Leader, a freighter developed by shipping line Nippon Yusen K.K. and oil distributor Nippon Oil Corp, took off from a shipyard in the western city of Kobe, officials of the two firms said.
The huge freighter capable of carrying 6,400 automobiles is equipped with 328 solar panels at a cost of 150 million yen (S$2.4 million dollars), the officials said. Read more...

Yet read also: Japan’s First (Barely) Solar Powered Cargo Ship Takes to the Waves

Greenpeace bids to turn Japan against whaling

ENN, December 09, 2008

TOKYO (Reuters) - Greenpeace launched a campaign to turn Japan against whaling on Tuesday, with directors of the group from around the world delivering a letter to Prime Minister Taro Aso, urging him to halt the hunts.
The letter handover came weeks after Japan's whaling fleet set off for the Antarctic for an annual hunt aimed at catching about 900 whales, which Tokyo says is carried out for scientific research purposes.

In a break with past practice, Greenpeace is focusing on a campaign to try to change Japanese domestic opinion this year, rather than send a ship to chase the fleet in the Southern Ocean, which caused diplomatic ruffles last year. Read more...

Anti-whaling activists joined by Daryl Hannah

ENN, December 02, 2008

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Hardline anti-whaling activists prepared on Tuesday to pursue Japan's Antarctic whaling fleet with support from Daryl Hannah, who criticized Greenpeace for opting out of the annual chase.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which clashed last year with the eight-ship fleet, bombarding it with stink bombs and briefly boarding a harpoon vessel, departs Australia on Wednesday for the Southern Ocean. Read more...

Japanese Govt Launching Carbon Label Program

Environmental Leader, August 21, 2008

About 30 Japanese companies will voluntarily start carrying carbon footprint labels on food packaging and other products beginning in April 2009, Guardian reports. Japan’s trade ministry has drawn up a uniform method of labeling carbon emissions to avoid fears among some firms that their competitors may use in-house calculations and produce the lowest possible emissions data. Read more...

Japan seeks new allies on whaling

BBC, March 3, 2008

By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News website

Protestors said Japan was buying the votes of countries attendingJapan is looking for new supporters of its pro-whaling stance ahead of a major meeting on the future of the International Whaling Commission (IWC).
A one-day seminar on Monday brought delegates from 12 developing countries, most of them not IWC members, to Tokyo to discuss "sustainable use" of whales. An official told the BBC that Japan hoped these nations would join the IWC. Read more...

Australian navy may track Japan's whaling fleet

ENN, December 13, 2007

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia's new government may send a navy ship to Antarctica to track Japan's whaling fleet and gather evidence to mount a legal challenge, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said on Thursday. Japan's whaling fleet plans to hunt 935 minke whales, 50 fin whales and for the first time in 40 years, 50 humpback whales for research over the Antarctic summer, with the fleet already on its way south followed by anti-whaling activists.
"We take seriously Australia's international obligations on the proper protection of whales," Rudd told reporters on the sidelines of the U.N. environment summit in Bali. Read more...

U.N. Completes Carbon Trading Link Under Kyoto

ENN, November 14, 2007

Japan on Wednesday became the first country to take delivery of carbon offsets which it can use to help it stay within its binding greenhouse gas emissions limits under the Kyoto Protocol, the U.N. climate body said.
Last year Japan was 150 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, or some 13 percent, above its Kyoto limit of 1.2 billion tonnes. Japan was the first country to use the trading link, called the International Transaction Log (ITL), which the U.N. said became operational on Wednesday. Read more...