Renowned for having the fastest horizontal flight speed of any migratory bird, the white-throated needletail (Hirundapus caudacutus) comes to the warm climes of Japan in spring to nest, lays its eggs, and raise its young, then migrates to Australia when autumn arrives. However, as these birds spend their lives on the wing when they are not raising their young, they are very difficult to observe, and their migratory route remained unclear. Nevertheless, scientists have now succeeded in conducting a tracking survey of white-throated needletails fitted with small recording devices, and have determined their precise migratory routes in spring and autumn. Rather than taking the shortest route, these birds make a round-trip of as much as 40,000 km between Japan and Australia, following a figure-eight pattern.

Birds and many other creatures are thought to have an internal compass that detects the Earth's magnetic field. There are several hypotheses about the nature of this compass in birds. One of the recent —— the radical-pair mechanism hypothesis —— has emerged from the field of quantum biology, which investigates physical phenomena at the molecular level within the body. Efforts to shed light on this mechanism are underway. Photoreceptors in the retina of birds have magnetic properties when activated by blue light and respond to the geomagnetic field. Scientists say these signals affect the birds' vision, enabling them to perceive direction visually.

Tracing its roots back to the private laboratory museum founded in 1932 by Dr. Yoshimaro Yamashina with his own personal funds, the Yamashina Institute for Ornithology is the very cornerstone of avian research in Japan. During the Vietnam War, at the request of the U.S. military, the institute resumed conducting surveys in which leg bands are attached to migratory birds such as herons, which are involved in the transmission of Japanese encephalitis. The institute's bird banding surveys still continue today, with information provided by not only the 400 or so volunteers currently involved in the program, but also other members of the public. Cutting-edge instruments have also emerged, leading to the establishment of a variety of survey methods. The abundant data accumulated by the institute through its surveys over the decades is helping to speed up ecological investigation.

As the activity range of migratory birds is global in scale, it is very difficult to study them, and for a long time, their ecology remained mysterious. Many people are fascinated by migratory birds and find their thoughts turning to the birds' destinations, which evoke a sense of the seasons and a certain wanderlust. Once tracking studies began to be carried out with the aid of satellites in the 1990s, scientific and technological methods of tracking avian migration were established, and the hitherto-mysterious routes and behavior of migratory birds began to become apparent. At the same time, results have also emerged from field surveys carried out by citizens. Linking these results to science and technology is leading to the discovery of new facts.

Various attempts to reduce the volume of greenhouse gas emissions are underway. One such effort that has long been the focus of attention is biomanufacturing, which leverages biotechnology and uses bioresources as basic ingredients, rather than relying on fossil resources. However, finding microorganisms that are suitable for use is difficult and the path to commercialization has been a long one. Now, though, cutting-edge technologies in the form of AI and genome editing are reducing that distance. Scientists say that it is possible to efficiently produce various synthetic chemical compounds without fossil resources by using genome editing technology to modify microorganisms according to designs created by AI.

It was in the 1960s that hay fever caused by common ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia) and Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica) was first reported in Japan. Since then, the prevalence of pollen allergy has grown year by year to such an extent that it is now called the “national disease” of Japan. The most common form of the disease is Japanese cedar pollinosis, from which approximately 40% of the Japanese population suffers. However, as Japanese cedar——also known by its Japanese name, sugi——is a resource essential to Japan's daily life and the conservation of its land, the Forestry Agency has been endeavoring to develop low-pollen varieties of the tree. Now, thanks to genome editing technology, improvements aimed at creating a variety that produces no pollen at all are progressing. There are high hopes that humans and sugi trees might be able to coexist.

Cellular immunotherapy is showing promise as a new form of treatment that inhibits the various functions of cancer cells that enable them to evade the human immune system. In particular, thanks to improvements aided by the latest genome editing technology, CAR-T/TCR-T cell therapy is attracting attention as a treatment offering a decisive advantage against refractory cancer. However, as the cellular drugs covered by insurance are manufactured overseas, they have an extremely high price tag, making their widespread use among cancer patients impractical. Scientists say that the development of Japan's own new generic technologies and license protection that do not rely on overseas intellectual property will need to be facilitated at the level of national government.

Genome editing is a technology for manipulating genes by specifically cutting a target DNA sequence with the aid of a DNA cleavage enzyme. Unlike genetic recombination , which involves inserting exogenous genes, genome editing is regarded as a comparatively safe means of modifying an organism's genes and has become prevalent in a variety of fields. What has made this advance possible is an innovative genome editing tool called CRISPR-Cas9. The scientists who developed it were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2020. This tool has now opened up a wide range of possibilities for “manufacturing” that would be impossible without genome editing technology.

Marine forests filled with numerous seaweed species stretch along the Japanese coast. Known in Japan as the “cradle of the sea,” for the role they play in nurturing fish and shellfish, these beds of marine plants have now become the focus of attention as blue carbon ecosystems capable of absorbing and storing atmospheric CO₂. One project currently underway aims to tap into blue carbon ecosystems as CO₂ sinks, while also furthering the development of the fisheries industry. Hopes are growing that this measure to tackle global warming will succeed in Japan, given the nation's culinary culture of eating seaweed and abundant scientific knowledge of these marine plants.

Sea temperatures are rising. Japanese coastal waters in particular have seen a rise of 1.28°C over the last 100 years, which is around double the increase of 0.61°C in the global average. The habitats of a variety of marine organisms have changed over this period, and the conventional ecosystem balance is breaking down. Climate change is thought to be a factor in this, but the precise reasons are still unclear at this stage. However, using environmental DNA microanalysis, it has become possible to gain an accurate understanding of current ecosystems without capturing living creatures. By learning what kinds of organisms inhabit Japanese coastal waters, we will be able to make the coastal fisheries industry more efficient.