(しょくひんろす)

food loss, food waste

(へらす)

to reduce; to decrease

(うごき)

movement; trend

(ひろがる)

to spread

(まだ)

still; yet

(たべる)

to eat

(すてる)

to throw away; to discard

(しょくひん)

food products, foodstuffs

(よぶ)

to call

(にほん)

Japan

(ねんかん)

period of ~ years

(やく)

approximately, about

(まん)

ten thousand

(とん)

ton (unit)

(はんぶん)

half

(ちかい)

near / close

(かてい)

household; home; family

(でる)

to come out; to occur

(こうした)

such / this kind of

(もんだい)

problem

(こんびに)

convenience store

(すーぱー)

supermarket

(しょうみきげん)

best-before date

(しょうひん)

goods; merchandise; product

(やすい)

cheap / inexpensive

(うる)

to sell

(みせ)

shop, store

(ふえる)

to increase; to grow

(うれのこり)

unsold goods, leftovers

(べんとう)

boxed lunch; bento

(あぷり)

app / application

(しょうかい)

introduction, presentation

(ひつよう)

necessary / needed

(ひと)

person / people

(とどける)

to deliver

(しくみ)

structure, system, mechanism

(せんもんか)

expert, specialist

(つくる)

to make

(みず)

water

(えねるぎー)

energy

(たくさん)

a lot / many

(つかう)

to use

(かう)

to buy

(おおきな)

big (attrib.)

(こうか)

effect

(ある)

a certain (some)

(はなす)

to speak, talk

potential / can (ru-verb)

The potential form expresses ability or possibility. Here, used in the negative, it describes elderly people who cannot quit driving.

even though / despite ~

Expresses contrast or unexpected result. Iran says they were attacked even though they are not at war.

completely / finish ~ing (often regretful)

Expresses completion, often with regret or unexpectedness. Here the rice sold out quickly.

is doing, has been doing (ongoing state/action)

Expresses a continuing action or resulting state. Formed with て-form + いる. Can describe an action in progress or a state resulting from a past change.

because ～

Provides a reason or cause.

because of, due to

Indicates a reason or cause. More formal than から or ので. Can follow nouns (の + ため) or plain-form verbs/adjectives.

and (non-exhaustive list)

や lists representative examples — Shikoku and Kyushu among other regions (四国や九州).

come toward (action approaching)

Indicates motion toward the speaker or a location. Here it describes rocks flying toward people.

seems like / looks like ～

Verb stem + そう expresses appearance/likelihood.

when ~

Indicates the time when something happened — when he was in junior high school.

too much / excessively ~

Indicates excess. Used to describe the government's methods being too harsh (厳しすぎる) and the military deployment being excessive (やりすぎ).

to make sure ~ does not happen

Expresses taking action to prevent something. Here, to prevent enemies from coming.

even just ~, if only ~

だけ (only) plus でも (even) plays down how small an action is while stressing that it still counts. するだけでも、大きな効果がある says even that one small habit makes a real difference.

食品ロスを減らす動きが広がる

Efforts to cut food waste are spreading

まだ食べられるのに捨てられてしまう食品は「食品ロス」と呼ばれています。

Food that is thrown away even though it could still be eaten is called "food loss."

日本では1年間に約460万トンの食品が捨てられていて、その半分近くは家庭から出ています。

In Japan about 4.6 million tons of food is discarded each year, and close to half of it comes from households.

こうした問題を減らすため、コンビニやスーパーでは、賞味期限が近い商品を安く売る店が増えてきました。

To reduce this problem, more convenience stores and supermarkets have begun selling products close to their best-before date at a discount.

売れ残りそうな弁当をアプリで紹介し、必要な人に届ける仕組みも広がっています。

Schemes that advertise lunch boxes likely to go unsold through an app and get them to people who need them are also spreading.

専門家は「食品を作るときには、水やエネルギーもたくさん使われている。

An expert says, "When food is produced, a great deal of water and energy is used as well.

買いすぎないようにするだけでも、大きな効果がある」と話しています。

Simply making sure not to buy too much already has a big effect."