The Japanese are breaking new ground in many fields of sustainable design, but access to the work of Japanese designers and researchers is limited by the comparative difficulty of learning Japanese.

Japan for Sustainability helps you keep up without learning kanji and kana. Japan for Sustainability offers translations of articles from the Japanese media, English-language reports on the state of Japanese sustainability, links to maps and datasets, even a newsletter. I spent two years working as an environmental journalist in Japan, and overall, the best access I've seen to Japan's efforts to reconcile growth and the environment.

(thanks, Alan!)