Japan recorded 86,473 IVF births in 2024, about 1 in 8 of its 686,173 births. Treatments fell to 550,265 while the multiple-birth rate rose to 4.15 percent, and the 2022 insurance reform helps explain both.
Hokkaido University and Japan's forestry institute modelled all 349 ski areas in the country. At 4°C of warming, only seven stay open 100 days a year on natural snow. At 2°C, 53 do.
France announced three theme parks near Paris, €6 billion of Saudi money, and the region said one would be Dragon Ball. Toei Animation says it granted no license; Paris now says it never put that name forward.
Goldman Sachs, Citi, Deutsche Bank, MUFG and 17 others will form a company in late 2026 to issue a dollar stablecoin. Why banks are entering a $303.7 billion market where Tether holds about 60%, and what is undecided.
Warming seas pushed a pufferfish north across the Tsugaru Strait, and the hybrids do not fit Japan's 1983 table of edible species and parts. How the rulebook caught up, and why the Mediterranean has the same gap.
Murakami's salmon run fell from 55,000 fish to 1,400 in a decade. Now the town is spending about $32,000 to attempt what Norway and Chile have not: closing the life cycle of chum salmon entirely on land.
ABLIC's CLEAN-Boost banks tiny amounts of ambient energy and releases them in one burst, amplified up to 30,000 times. Inside the battery-less sensor that trips on 150 microliters of water.
Washing a jet at Narita still takes eight people and six hours of night work. JAL is bringing in the AW3, a Swedish robot, in service by the end of 2026. Japan once had a car wash for jumbo jets; now it buys.
Transits through the Strait of Hormuz have fallen from 21.6 to 4.9 million barrels a day, and Gulf producers are building seven bypass pipelines. Japan restored procurement, but July brought a 634.5 billion yen deficit.
Hafnium keeps advanced chips and jet engines running, yet the world makes about 71 tonnes a year, nearly all of it in France and the United States. An Osaka chemical maker now wants a share of it by 2028.
A kawakawa hybrid made bluefin tuna sperm at eight months, and rainbow trout now spawn Chinook salmon yearly. Inside Japan's 20-year surrogate broodstock effort and Kindai's 32-year tuna project.
Japan signed a mass-production contract for the Terra B1 interceptor drone on August 25, 2026, three months after opening the tender. Three foreign entries were tested too; only the Japanese aircraft got a contract.
Tourists are buying eyeglasses in Japan, where no prescription is required and an Osaka store says it can go from eye test to handover in 25 minutes. In the US, a replacement pair can take two weeks to a month.
After reports that Rakuten would help Helsing sell its HX-2 drone to Japan's Defense Ministry, three shops left Rakuten Ichiba. Strike drone or interceptor, and how far does a seller answer for the mall's other business?
On August 24 Takaichi pledged continued aid to Ukraine and sanctions on Russia at the Kyiv summit. Japan also draws 8.9% of its LNG from Russia, and a US Senate bill counts it among the top five buyers of Russian gas.
A high-kick photo under a torii split Japan, and shrine officials said Shinto has no rules to break. A country of 123 million reports 175 million adherents, yet only 26 percent claim a faith.
Cold sleep was a movie prop. Then ESA calculated that a hibernating crew would cut a Mars spacecraft's mass by a third, and a Japanese lab found the brain switch. With humans, it is still a matter of hours.
From November 1, 2026, Japan drops instant tax exemption at the register. Visitors pay full price and get the 10% consumption tax back only after customs confirms the goods are leaving.
Kagawa University Hospital treated a three-year-old girl's recurrent C. diff colitis with her father's gut bacteria. A year on, no relapse. US-approved products exclude children, and the EU sets shared rules in 2027.
A Czech team pooled five studies on what competitive gaming does to the body. Energy use barely moves, 1.3 to 2.5 kcal a minute, while heart rate can jump from 85 to 137 bpm. In Japan, the argument is about the word.