Portable power banks catching fire in Japan have more than doubled between 2020 and 2024; public and private sectors have begun strengthening safety measures and efforts to raise public awareness amid a series of incidents in public spaces this year

A Pokemon card game event planned at a shrine to Japan's war dead was canceled and Pokemon Company apologized following a backlash from China, with escalating tensions: Yasukuni Shrine honors Japan's 2,5 million war dead, including convicted war criminals

Clothes waste will be reduced by 25% by 2030 through recycle and reuse to address the environmental impact of emissions-heavy garment production; textile industry waste has become a major issue worldwide, with 92 million tons of carbon dioxide annually

Protesters rallied near the Niigata prefectural government building before voting took place in the prefectural assembly on a partial restart of the Kashiwazaki Kariwa nuclear power plant, the world's largest, closed after the 2011 Fukushima disaster