Scientists will start drilling off Japan this month to seek the hottest place where life can survive deep below the seabed. The drilling under the Nankai Trough in the Pacific Ocean will be part of a project by 900 experts to map carbon underground, hoping for clues to everything from the origin of life on earth to the formation of oil and gas. Scientists will drill into rocks where temperatures reach 130°C (266°F) in a two-month trip off southern Japan starting on September 12, said Kai-Uwe Hinrichs, of the University of Bremen in Germany who led the scientific proposal for the mission.

Kansai Electric Power was ordered by a Japanese court to halt operations at its Takahama nuclear reactors Nos. 3 and 4, the first time that an operating Japanese nuclear plant has been ordered to stop. Kansai Electric stated that it will quickly appeal the injunction, but it could be months or years before a final decision is made. The order comes in the middle of efforts by Prime Minister Shinzo to restore atomic power after the Fukushima crisis of 2011; the decision could challenge the recent progress getting reactors back online.

Japan told United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon in a private statement that it plans to take a comprehensive exception to the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ's) jurisdiction over whaling practices. The statement was made last August by Motohide Toshikawa, Japan’s ambassador to the United Nations, and was recently disclosed in Australian political circles.

Japan entered into a contribution agreement with the United Nation's Green Climate Fund on May 21, pushing the fund past the halfway mark needed for it to go into effect. Though Japan's agreement came nearly a month after the deadline, the country's $1.5 billion pledge brought the fund's total to $5.47 billion, well over the dollar amount necessary for the fund to start allocating resources to projects. The fund plans to approve the first round of projects in November 2015.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced plans to issue a new 5-year rebuilding plan to deal with the aftermath of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear plant meltdown. The new plan would be unveiled this summer and replace the current one, set to expire next March. Abe said that the government would continue to take the lead on water decontamination and decommissioning of the plant. The Prime Minister also confirmed controversial plans to create permanent storage facilities for irradiated trash in several abandoned towns near the site.

Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry is asking the cabinet and parliament to approve a budget request of approximately $779 million to be used for energy efficiency programs. The Ministry wants to help factories and small businesses transition to energy-efficient devices, increase solar energy storage capacity at power stations, and bolster the clean energy industry in the region harmed by the 2011 Fukushima earthquake and tsunami. The Ministry’s announcement comes after utilities warned that their solar storage capacity was running out.

Following the International Whaling Commission’s (IWC's) passage on September 18, 2014, of a resolution opposing Japan’s "scientific whaling" program, the Japanese government announced last Friday its intention to continue whaling. The non-binding IWC resolution, which passed by a 35-20 majority at the group’s biennial meeting in Slovenia, follows a ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in March, which declared Japan’s whaling practices illegal; the IWC resolution states that Japan should abide by the ICJ ruling.

On April 11, Japan’s cabinet approved an energy policy that would incorporate nuclear power, reversing the government’s previous decision to phase out atomic energy. The plan is the first energy strategy produced by Japan since the 2011 Fukushima disaster, which called into question the country’s reliance on nuclear energy.

Japan has cancelled an upcoming whale hunt in response to an International Court of Justice ruling that banned the country’s annual Antarctic whaling drive. Commercial whaling was prohibited in 1986, but Japan has continued to hunt the animals for years, ostensibly in order to gather scientific data. The recent ruling, handed down last Monday, rejected the nation’s claim that expeditions were for research purposes in a decision that amounts to a long-sought victory for environmentalists.

In a move that could hinder efforts to reach an agreement at the Warsaw Climate Change Conference, Japan has significantly dialed back its greenhouse gas emissions goals. On Friday, the Cabinet approved a target emission reduction of 3.8 percent from the 2005 level by 2020—as opposed to the earlier goal of a 25 percent reduction from the 1990 level. Japan has faced significant energy challenges since the 2011 Fukushima disaster resulted in the shutdown of all the country’s nuclear plants, which had previously provided about 30 percent of Japan's electricity.