The May 2026 issue of the Japan Science and Technology Agency’s JST News features Prof. Kei Yoshimura and his research on improving flood prediction and disaster prevention.

As extreme rainfall and flood events become more frequent due to climate change, both structural and non-structural disaster prevention measures are becoming increasingly important. Prof. Yoshimura’s research aims to predict floods up to 72 hours in advance by combining satellite observations with numerical model simulations, helping improve early warning systems and reduce disaster impacts.

For more details, please visit the article (Japanese).

On May 8th, junior high school students from Shibuya Gakuen visited our laboratory.

Figs. 1 and 2 – Lectures with Prof. Kei Yoshimura and Ayane Ataka

During their visit, the students participated in short lectures, toured the IIS Kashiwa Campus, and attended explanations about Sphere and various research posters presented by Prof. Kei Yoshimura, Ayane Ataka (a Shibuya Gakuen alumna and current M2 student in our laboratory), as well as other staff and student members.

Figs. 3 and 4 – Tour and Sphere

We hope the students had an enjoyable and inspiring experience, and we wish them all the best in their future endeavors!

Fig. 5 – Research posters

A research group from the School of Science and Engineering at Chuo University, the Center for Environmental Remote Sensing at Chiba University, and the Institute of Industrial Science at the University of Tokyo has successfully reproduced the isotopic ratios of precipitation, water vapor, seawater, and sea ice in a manner consistent with observations, using a global climate model that incorporates the behavior of “water isotopes.”

The results of this research have been published in the Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems (JAMES).

For further details, please refer to the following paper and press release.

DOI：10.1029/2025MS005082

Press release：https://www.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/ja/news/5051/

Department of Engineering and Civil Infrastructure

Master’s and Doctoral Programs (Application Schedule A): Friday, May 29, 2026 – Thursday, June 4, 2026, 3:00 p.m. (Japan Standard Time).

Entrance Exam Schedule: Monday, August 31 – Wednesday, September 2, 2026

Official Site：https://nenv.k.u-tokyo.ac.jp/admission

Department of Natural Environmental Studies

Application Schedule A: Thursday, June 4, 2026 – Wednesday, June 10, 2026, 11:00 PM (Japan Standard Time)

Entrance Exam Schedule: ：Tuesday, July 28 – Thursday, July 30

Application Schedule B: Wednesday, November 11 – Tuesday, November 17, 2026, 11:00 PM (Japan Standard Time)

Entrance Exam Schedule: tbd

Official site: https://www.civil.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/graduate_school/

Entrance Examination Information Session for the Department of Natural Environmental Science (In-Person)

An entrance examination information session for the Department of Natural Environmental Science will be held on Saturday, April 25th, from 1:00 PM. Those wishing to participate should register.

Registration Form (in Japanese)

Researchers from the Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, and George Mason University have developed a new method to improve air temperature forecasts from one to five weeks ahead—without requiring additional model simulations.

This research was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). 

For more information, please check the publication and press release:

Selective reuse of prior ensemble data improves the latest air temperature forecast over North America

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2524516123

Press release: https://www.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/news/5043/

On April 4th, the annual Meisuikai Cherry Blossom Viewing (Hanami) was held at Komaba Campus, hosted by Yamazaki Lab.

Despite the rain, the event was a great success. The gathering began with a seminar session, providing an opportunity for participants to get to know each other better and to share their current and past research, as well as their professional experiences. Afterwards, everyone enjoyed the food and the cherry blossoms in a warm and lively atmosphere.

We hope that everyone had a wonderful time, and we look forward to seeing you again at next year’s Hanami, scheduled for March 27 in Kashiwa.

Kashiwa Science Camp (KSC) 2025 was held from February 17 to 20, 2026. In this very short period, four Bachelor students engaged in discussions, hands-on model simulations, data visualization, and presentations. This year’s topic continued and, in a different light, revisited the previous year’s study: When does the rain that precipitates in Japan arrive in Brazil?

The students have shown great potential as researchers, and we hope that they achieve all the goals they aim for. Congratulations, KSC team and students!

The global version of JAXA’s Today’s Earth (TE-Global), which the Yoshimura Laboratory is collaborating with, has been updated. Please take a look. 

• Main Page
  https://www.eorc.jaxa.jp/water/map/index.html?area=global
• Earth-graphy article (in Japanese)
  https://earth.jaxa.jp/ja/earthview/2026/03/09/9164/index.html

Because of some issues, the website was unavailable for a while, but it was re-opened at the beginning of March. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Papers with reviews (English)

1. Casado, M., Bailey, A., Leroy-Dos Santos, C., Fourré, É., Favier, V., Agosta, C., Kittel, C., Arnaud, L., Prié, F., Akers, P. D., Cauquoin, A., Werner, M., Janssen, L., Stenni, B., Dreossi, G., Spolaor, A., Petteni, A., Savarino, J., and Landais, A. (2026). Water isotope-temperature relationship variability across Antarctica set by atmospheric circulation, Nat. Geosci., https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-026-01961-y.
2. Li, Y., Cauquoin, A., Okazaki, A., and Yoshimura, K. (2026). Improved response of δ¹⁸O_sw in the Pacific Ocean to atmosphere-ocean interaction and ENSO using the isotope-enabled Fully Coupled Model MIROC6-iso, J. Adv. Model. Earth Syst., 18, e2025MS005082, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025MS005082.
3. Tokuda, D., and Dirmeyer, P. A. (2026). Selective reuse of prior ensemble data improves the latest air temperature forecast over North America, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 123(15), e2524516123, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2524516123.
4. T. Fukuda, Y. Muto, R. Olson, T. Nitta, T. Yoshikane, H. Kawata, and K. Yoshimura (2026). Global water stress assessment using a coupled hydrological socioeconomic modeling framework. Hydrological Processes, 40(4), e70520, https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.70520.
5. Tcheng, T., Fourré, É., Leroy-Dos-Santos, C., Parrenin, F., Le Meur, E., Prié, F., Jossoud, O., Jacob, R., Minster, B., Magand, O., Agosta, C., Dutrievoz, N., Favier, V., Baubant, L., Lassalle-Bernard, C., Casado, M., Werner, M., Cauquoin, A., Arnaud, L., Jourdain, B., Picard, G., Bouchet, M., and Landais, A. (2026). Multiproxy analyses of multiple firn cores from coastal Adélie Land, The Cryosphere, 20, 1599–1618, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-1599-2026.
6. Guamán, S. J. Pesántez, C. Birkel, S. Núñez, I. Cárdenas, K. Yoshimura, H. Bong, P. Crespo. Coupling an isotope-enabled global spectral model (IsoGSM) with hydrological modeling using streamflow-isotope-based correction, Hydrol. Process, 40(3), e70478, https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.70478.
7. Nakai, F., Wise, S., Nakanishi, H., Han, W., Nakamura, S., Otsuyama, K., Yoshimura, K., and Sekimoto, Y. (2026). Toward Smart City Digital Twins: Bridging Preparation and Response Phases in Urban Flood Evacuation through Agent-Based Modeling, 59th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 1841, https://hdl.handle.net/10125/111614.
8. Aboagye, P. D., Cao, A., Watanabe, M., Petraroli, I., and Nakamura, S. (2026). A decade after Sendai: Assessing global actor dynamics and roles in participatory flood early warning systems. Progress in Disaster Science, 29, 100529, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pdisas.2026.100529.
9. Sinha, A., Cheng, J., Li, H., Tanoue, M., Bong, H., Zhang, H., Tan, L., Cheng, H., and Yoshimura, K. (2026). ENSO modulated upstream convection as the primary control on interannual δ¹⁸O variability in East Asia, npj Clim. Atmos. Sci., 9, 64, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41612-026-01333-8.
10. Falster, G., Abramowitz, G., Hobeichi, S., Hughes, C., Treble, P., Abram, N. J., Bird, M. I., Cauquoin, A., Dixon, B., Drysdale, R., Jin, C., Munksgaard, N., Proemse, B., Tyler, J. J., Werner, M., and Tadros, C. V. (2026). High resolution monthly precipitation isotope estimates across Australia from machine learning, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 30, 289–315, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-289-2026.
11. Shi, Y., Wang, S., Liu, X., Yoshimura, K., Bong, H., Zhu, C., Che, Y., Wu, H., and Zhang, M. (2026). Weakened isotope altitude gradient in the Central Asian water tower: Role of topography and local circulation. Water Resources Research, 62, e2025WR040283, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025WR040283.
12. Jouzel, J., Cauquoin, A., Bard, E., Zhang, L., Hou, S., Wu, Z., Zhou, W., Lipenkov, V., Petit, J.-R., Raisbeck, G., and Yiou, F. (2026). Beryllium 10 in Antarctica over the last seven millennia, Sci. Data, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-025-06444-0.
13. Liu, K., Wang, S., Liu, J., Yoshimura, K., Jie, H., Shi, Y., Lei, S., Cheng, Y., Wang, L., and Zhang, M. (2026). Spatial and climate dependency of water isotope fractionation between precipitation and vapor in East Asia based on explainable machine learning, Glob. Planet. Change, 257, 105213, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2025.105213.
14. Bong, H., LeGrande, A. N., Dee, S. G., Zhu, J., Cauquoin, A., Fiorella, R. P., Ding, Q., Dutrievoz, N., Tanoue, M., Frazer, M., Sarkar, M., Agosta, C., Yoshimura, K., Werner, M., Okazaki, A., Risi, C., Steen-Larsen, H. C., Casado, M., Wahl, S., Nusbaumer, J., Worden, J. R., Good, S. P., Bailey, A., Schneider, M., Noel, S., Mandal, S., Bowman, K. W., Li, Y., and Schmidt, G. A. (2026). Water Isotope Model Intercomparison Project (WisoMIP): Present-day Climate, J. Geophys. Res. Atmos., https://doi.org/10.1029/2025JD044985.