Tokyo’s Engine Room
Japan, 2025

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Aerial view of a densely packed cityscape with numerous buildings and skyscrapers in various shapes and sizes.

Tokyo on a sweltering summer day.

Side-by-side comparison of Mount Fuji in 2020 and 2023, showing reduced snow cover in 2023, with two people sitting on benches watching the mountain in both images, and a person walking past in the foreground.

Climate as marketing. A technology refurbishment company uses heat messaging to connect with potential customers.

A tall industrial chimney with flames and bright fire at the top, seen during nighttime, with blurred silhouettes of people in the foreground.

Heat from production. Factories and industrial facilities (as seen here in nearby Yokohama’s industrial precinct) add to local warming through constant heat release.

A street scene with a large colorful mural of a person holding an umbrella, walking across a crosswalk at sunset. The mural is placed over a real-world city intersection.

Smarter streets. New, reflective road surface in the foreground, normal in the background. Composite image of normal and thermal images.

Water splash in front of a background of blurred people and a stone building

Uchimizu. The traditional act of water sprinkling to cool surfaces.

A colorful digital illustration of two orange figures, both women, sitting close to each other and using their smartphones against a dark purple background.

Water wall at Roppongi Hills. Running water helps to reduce ambient heat.

Urban building exterior with multiple air conditioning units, satellite dishes, electrical wiring, and some green plants on the lower right. Windows and industrial elements are visible on the weathered brick wall.

Every wall is a heater. Cooling the indoors means heating the outdoors — one unit at a time.

A young girl sitting on a wooden bench in an urban area at night, looking at her phone. In the background, a building with air conditioning units, windows, and Japanese signs, with a large digital advertisement screen displaying an abstract, colorful image of a television.

Air conditioners – a solution and problem. 10.11 pm: While people rest below, air conditioners quietly pump 55°C heat into the Tokyo night while coolant flows into buildings at 12°C