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July 05, 2026
 

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ENERGY

Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Ryosei Akazawa (second from left) and State Minister for Foreign Affairs Iwao Horii (far left) attend a high-level economic dialogue with the European Union in Brussels on Thursday.
BUSINESS
May 8, 2026
Japan and Saudi Arabia to set up energy security task force
Discussions at the task force are slated to start early next week.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda (center) attends a monetary policy meeting with other high-ranking officials in Tokyo on April 28.
EDITORIALS
May 8, 2026
Japan pulls out the stops to halt the yen’s slide
While the yen’s dive has been abetted by speculators, the real causes of the currency’s weakness are structural.
An oil refinery in Germany on Thursday. Oil supplies are set to tighten further even if the U.S. and Iran reach a deal to end their war.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
May 8, 2026
Oil supply shock to worsen as inventories fall further even if conflict ends
The rapid depletion of commercial stockpiles and emergency reserves has come at a time when ‌stockpiles are typically ‌built in preparation for the Northern Hemisphere summer.
Sany electric heavy trucks at a depot in Tangshan, China, on April 1
BUSINESS / Markets
May 7, 2026
Iran war to accelerate China’s shift to electric trucks from diesel
Some energy consultancies ‌now expect the decline in diesel use in China to accelerate faster than previously forecast.
Cooling towers at the Eskom Holdings SOC Kendal coal-fired power plant in Mpumalanga, South Africa. Japan plans to provide a yen-denominated energy loan to South Africa.
JAPAN
May 7, 2026
Japan offers energy loan and ammonia technology to South Africa
The loan would be used by South Africa to extend its own energy transition aims, Japanese diplomatic officials said.
A man runs past national flags of ASEAN member states outside a media center in Cebu on Tuesday, ahead of the 48th ASEAN Summit to be held this week.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 7, 2026
Energy crisis front and center as ASEAN leaders prepare for summit
The energy crisis will force Manila leadership to craft a ​regional response while preventing regional conflicts in Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia from slipping down the agenda.
Trade minister Ryosei Akazawa speaks to reporters in Paris on Tuesday.
BUSINESS
May 6, 2026
Japan to boost joint oil stockpiles with UAE
The United Arab Emirates and Japan agreed to promote cooperation to ensure a stable supply of crude oil as the Strait of Hormuz, a key energy transportation hub, remains closed.
A worker unloads harvested sugarcane to a sugar mill in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India. Ethanol, made from crops such as sugarcane, rice and maize, is central to India's plan to cut costly oil imports and reduce planet-heating emissions from transport.
BUSINESS
May 6, 2026
Oil price rises bolster India’s ethanol push despite drawbacks
Ethanol, made from crops such as sugarcane, rice and maize, is central to India’s plan to cut costly oil imports and reduce planet-heating emissions from transport.
Loaded trucks on a road in India. The country's state-dominated refining sector has kept fuel prices steady despite surging crude costs.
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
May 5, 2026
Asia absorbs rising, uneven cost of energy crisis caused by war on Iran
The disruption has spurred the Asian Development Bank to cut its growth forecast for developing Asia and the Pacific to 4.7% this year, down from 5.1% previously.
President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping exit after their meeting in Busan, South Korea, on Oct. 30, 2025.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 5, 2026
China seeks an advantage with both Trump and Iran as war evolves
The war will no doubt be an important issue in talks between Trump and Xi when they meet in Beijing for a two-day summit.
Albert Park speaks during an interview in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on Monday.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 5, 2026
ADB urges countries to limit fuel subsidies to vulnerable groups
Japan has capped gasoline prices at around ¥170 per liter through subsidies after they surged to about ¥190 after the start of the Iran war.
Workers construct a prototype of a fast-breeder reactor in Kalpakkam, near the southern Indian city of Chennai, in August 2004.
COMMENTARY / World
May 5, 2026
An Indian nuclear reactor milestone proves doubters wrong
Consider the Japan’s Monju reactor It reached criticality in 1995 and was eventually shut down in 2016. In that entire period, it generated electricity for only a few months.
Since Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz, concerns have emerged over what a shortage of oil and naphtha — a raw material for plastic products including food-packaging containers — could mean to not only industries but also supply chains and individual consumers.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
May 5, 2026
Amid shortage concerns, Japan works to secure supplies of raw materials
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has sparked worries about what an oil and naphtha shortage could mean for not only industries but also supply chains and consumers.
A tanker approaches a pier at a PT Pertamina facility at Tanjung Priok Port in Jakarta in February. Conflict in the Middle East and rising fuel prices are driving energy shocks across Asia.
COMMENTARY
May 4, 2026
Oil shock will hit Asia harder than the 1970s
We’re seeing the first tremors of a similar earthquake now in Asia. More than 80% of the oil and gas that passes through the Strait of Hormuz heads east.
A maintenance worker inspects a generator during a maintenance outage at a nuclear power plant in Almaraz, western Spain, on April 23.
WORLD
May 4, 2026
Village braces for closure of Spain’s largest nuclear plant
The Almaraz plant, which contributes around 7% of Spain’s electricity production, is slated to close in 2028.
Electric vehicles at a charging station in Kathmandu on April 29. An expanding network of charging stations in the country has made long-distance electric travel increasingly viable as the number of EVs on the road has risen sharply.
ASIA PACIFIC
May 4, 2026
More people in Nepal drive electric, evading global fuel shocks
The Himalayan nation imported more than 13,500 EVs between mid-2024 and mid-2025 — double that of gas vehicles and a sharp rise from just seven a decade ago, data shows.
An agrivoltaic crop, in which solar panels are raised about 3 meters off the ground so that agricultural machinery can freely operate on the crops underneath, in Sosa, Chiba Prefecture.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / OUR PLANET
May 3, 2026
As Iran war sends oil prices soaring, some see fresh potential for solar in Japan
While megasolar projects are facing headwinds at the government level, some see renewed potential for solar sharing and smaller-scale, off-grid systems.
Motorists make their way past an anti-U.S. billboard referring to President Donald Trump and the Strait of Hormuz, in Tehran on Saturday.
WORLD
May 3, 2026
Trump says U.S. could restart Iran strikes ‘if they misbehave’
Trump is ‌under domestic pressure to break Iran’s hold on the strait, which has choked off 20% of the world’s oil and gas supplies and pushed up U.S. gasoline prices.
The interior of Ume-no-yu, a public bathhouse in the city of Nagano. Soaring oil prices driven by the war in the Middle East are threatening to deal a final blow to a storied Japanese institution: the sento, or traditional public bathhouse.
JAPAN / Society
May 2, 2026
Not even Japanese bathhouses are immune from shocks of Iran war
Soaring oil prices driven by the war in the Middle East are threatening to deal a final blow to the traditional public bathhouse.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi speaks during a government meeting on the Middle East on Thursday at the Prime Minister's Office.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 1, 2026
Japan secures enough petroleum-derived naphtha to last into 2027
Questions over a possible shortage of the material — used for products ranging from medical supplies to cheap consumer goods — have been rising due to the Iran war.
‘My dream is broken’: Japan visa rules push out foreign residents
A man orders from a kebab shop in the Okubo district in Tokyo.
Japan plans to sharply raise fees for residence permits from October
Foreign tourists walk on the path leading to the Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in May.
Japan’s princesses face life-altering legal revisions
Princess Aiko, the daughter of Emperor Naruhito, said in a 2022 news conference upon coming of age that she hopes to “spend a long time together” with her parents.
Japanese police arrest nine over Sierra Leone-based special fraud
Japanese police have arrested nine individuals for their alleged involvement in a special fraud case using Sierra Leone as a base.
Japanese-language education is at a turning point
The country is gradually transforming Japanese-language education from a volunteer-driven system into a professional, government-supported network to better serve its growing foreign population. 
Iran war exposed, but hasn’t changed, Japan’s reliance on imported oil
Wind turbines generate energy from strong easterly winds on the Shonai Plain in Yamagata Prefecture. Despite the oil crisis caused by conflict near the Strait of Hormuz, and concerns instability in the region could continue to impact supply and the price of imports, the administration of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi does not seem to be drawing on the war as a pretext to hasten progress toward Japan's renewable goals.
Six of the best: rikishi of note in each sumo division
Kazuma (right) faces off against future <i>yokozuna</i> Onosato during the All Japan Amateur Sumo Championships at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo in December 2020.
Some startups see opportunity in an aging Japan
Yasmin Baba, CTO of Amilis, wins the Grand Prize at the Pitch2Tokyo Grand Final on Feb. 19.
Japan’s fertility system offers few safe paths for same-sex couples
A Tokyo Pride parade participant holds a sign that says "we want to be a married couple, not a couple."
Life inside Japan’s largest prison for women
Western-style rooms spanning the size of four tatami mats with hardwood floors, a toilet and soft mattresses on bed frames are designated for foreign nationals and those with health conditions at Tochigi Prison.

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One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
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