Major electronics maker Toshiba is getting serious about the rooftop solar game, with plans to resell highly-efficient photovoltaic panels made by Bay Area-based SunPower. The two companies just struck a supply deal for 32 megawatts worth of panels in 2010 — enough to power as many as 32,000 homes.
The contract is significant for two reasons. Not only is it expanding SunPower’s global footprint and broadening its portfolio of projects, it also signals increased interest in solar energy in Japan, where Toshiba hopes to launch its residential solar business on April …

The new affordable, sporty hybrid Honda CR-Z is all set to go on sale in Japan.
CR-Z is short for “Compact Renaissance Zero”…and your guess is as good as mine on the name, but Honda is aiming the car at the younger generation, who want to go for a “green” car with a bit of flair and oomph. So what’s in a name? The car will go on sale in Japan today and in the United States and Europe by midyear.
Honda Motor Co. announced on Thursday that “the Japanese price would …

According to the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), Japanese Scientists from Tokyo University have invented a substance dubbed, “Elastic Water”. The substance is obtained by adding two grams of clay and a small quantity of organic matter into water. This new substance is jelly-like and is considered proper for usage in medicine for sticking tissues together as it is 95% water.

Seeking to turn an environmental problem into an economic opportunity, high-tech companies in resource-poor Japan are mining mountains of toxic e-waste for precious materials.
One model project, the sprawling Panasonic Eco Technology Center, sits in lush rice fields an hour’s drive outside of Osaka city.
Inside, workers and humming machines disassemble flat-panel televisions, refrigerators and air conditioners, sorting their metal and plastic components into boxes for recycling.

About 90 percent of dismantled parts are reused in one way or another, says Yutaka Maehara, a manager at the plant.
Among the most precious parts …

A technical tie-up between Toyota Motor Corp. and Mazda Motor Corp. in the field of hybrid vehicles is likely to be of greater benefit to Mazda, which lags behind in developing eco-friendly automobiles.

Mazda could eventually try to further strengthen its ties with Toyota by using Toyota auto parts and taking other measures in the aftermath of Ford Motor Co., Mazda’s largest shareholder, reducing its ratio of Mazda’s shares.

Japan said Wednesday it would offer 1.75 trillion yen (19.5 billion dollars) to developing nations under a climate deal, offering a major boost to the summit in Copenhagen.

The figure amounts to more than half of the money as part of a plan to assist developing nations, a key sticking point at the 194-nation conference in the Danish capital.

Toyota plans to lease out 600 of the plug-in hybrids to governments and corporations in Japan, the United States and Europe and gain feedback.

It says it will start selling the plug-in hybrid at home and abroad in two years.

The five-seater has a gasoline-powered internal combustion engine and an electric motor. Increased capacity of the lithium-ion batteries gives it a longer electric-motor-only cruising range. Its plug also allows users to charge the batteries using household electricity.

Japan needs to step up and take a more prominent and visible leadership role at the U.N. climate talks or the conference could end in failure, Japanese and foreign nongovernmental organizations said Thursday.
The Copenhagen conference is supposed to forge a deal on greenhouse gas emissions after the first period of the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.
With developed and developing countries still divided and a growing split within developing countries over some issues threatening a successful outcome at the conference, calls for the country where the protocol was forged to …

Japanese researchers said on Thursday they had found a way to make plant leaves absorb more carbon dioxide in an innovation that may one day help ease global warming and boost food production.
The Kyoto University team found that soaking germinated seeds in a protein solution raised the number of pores, or stomas, on the leaves that inhale CO2 and release oxygen, said chief researcher Ikuko Hara-Nishimura.
“A larger number means there are more intake windows for carbon dioxide, contributing to lowering the density of the gas,” she told AFP …

Japan’s envoy to climate change talks expressed doubt Wednesday that a final agreement would be reached at the UN summit on tackling global warming that starts next week in Copenhagen.

“Due to time constraints … we would have to say it will be difficult to agree on a legally binding text” at the December 7-18 meeting, said Environment Minister Sakihito Ozawa.