Clean air as a given? Not necessarily in Japan...

When you grow up in Australia like I did, you tend to think of clean air as a given. Of course, factors like bushfire season can change that quickly, and suddenly that "fresh air" can disappear. But day to day, most Aussies are used to looking outside and not really thinking twice about what they're breathing in. Living in Japan, though, that isn't always the case.

The results of the 2025 World Air Quality Report from IQAir were released at the end of March, and they showed that while some parts of the world are improving, the overall progress on air quality is stalling, and in some places, it's even getting worse. Factors like bushfire smoke, climate change, dust events, and even things like patchy air monitoring are all playing a role.

One stat from the research that really stood out to me was that only 14% of cities worldwide met the World Health Organization's annual PM2.5 guideline in 2025, which was down from 17% the year before. Australia was one of just 13 countries and territories to meet the WHO annual average PM2.5 guideline, which made me feel a bit homesick.

The report also found that 91% of countries and territories exceeded WHO guidelines, and that East Asia recorded a second straight year with no cities meeting the WHO PM2.5 standard. I thought that was pretty sobering for those of us living here, especially those of us who have been here a significant chunk of time. 

Checking the weather here is normal and something I do basically every day, and now I think maybe checking the air quality daily should be normalized, too.

Do you think much about the air quality here on a daily basis?