earth science

Weathernews Inc.

Weathernews Inc. is a earth science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Weathernews Inc. rather than just read about it. In short: Weathernews Inc. (Japanese: 株式会社ウェザーニューズ, Hepburn: Kabushikigaisha Uezānyūzu) (WNI) is a Japanese weather forecasting company, whose headquarters and global center are located in Mihama Ward, Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture.

Key takeaways

Weathernews Inc. belongs to earth science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Weathernews Inc. to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Weathernews Inc. from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Weathernews Inc. (Japanese: 株式会社ウェザーニューズ, Hepburn: Kabushikigaisha Uezānyūzu) (WNI) is a Japanese weather forecasting company, whose headquarters and global center are located in Mihama Ward, Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture. WNI owns Weathernews LiVE, a 24/7 online live stream. With 1,152 employees as of 2024 WNI claims to be the largest privately owned weather company in the world.

History Hiroyoshi Ishibashi, who served as the representative director and president of the Japanese subsidiary of Ocean Routes (ORCJ), a marine meteorological research company headquartered in the United States, expanded the company's land and aviation divisions to 180 million yen with the cooperation of financial institutions. Established in 1986 using a management buy-out method, which was extremely rare at the time, to purchase the company for 10,000 yen (the number of employees at the time of establishment was approximately 40). The background for its establishment was a maritime accident in January 1970 when a cargo ship sank due to a bomb cyclone that hit Onahama Port, killing 15 people. Because it was difficult to predict weather conditions and there was no weather information available for sailors, Ishibashi took this accident as an opportunity to improve weather information, saying, "If there was really useful weather information, this accident could have been prevented". In addition to being a pioneer in the private comprehensive weather forecasting service in Japan, in 1993 it merged with its parent company, Ocean Routes, and became the world's largest private weather information company and multinational company. Weathernews was founded in 1986, but including its predecessor ORCJ and its predecessor Pacific Weather Analysis Corporation (PWAC, founded in 1953). It has a history of 72 years (as of 2025). PWAC is a company that provides weather route information to ships sailing in the Pacific Ocean, and is the world's first private weather information company. In April 1983 it started providing weather information to Asahi Broadcasting (currently Asahi Broadcasting Group Holdings) becoming the first weather service provider other than the Japan Weather Association (JWA) to provide weather forecasts to a broadcasting station. This included providing cloud images for television from Japan's first meteorological satellite Himawari. In October 1991 it provided the world's first weather forecast using entirely 3D CGI graphics to News Station (TV Asahi). In 1993 it produced a program for TV Tokyo, Weather Paradise. A dedicated weather channel produced by Weathernews started on PerfecTV! in October 1996. On December 19, 2006, the Nintendo Wii released the "Forecast Channel", which made use of Weathernews' website as its main content provider. By connecting to the internet via WiiConnect24, the channel would show direct weather forecasts, the day's current temperature, and other information once the channel had started up. It would also show the current day's forecast and temperature as well on the Home Menu's channel preview. Since the discontinuation of WiiConnect24 on June 28, 2013, the Forecast Channel cannot connect to Weathernews' servers, rendering the channel discontinued. In 2009 WNI started SOLiVE24, an internet streaming mixing weather forecasts with some variety programming (with some technical involvement by Fuji TV for its launch), which evolved into Weathernews LiVE, a more straight-forward weather service with some entertainment segments, in 2018. Also in 2009 WNI launched their own mobile app, initially named "Weathernews Touch" for iOS; the app would be renamed "Weathernews" in 2019, available for both iOS and Android; the WNI app's main competitors include JWA's tenki.jp, Yahoo! Japan's own weather app and NHK's News and Disaster Preparedness app.

Global presence Besides the global centre in Chiba (Japan), WNI maintains service centres in Oklahoma (United States), Copenhagen (Denmark), Amsterdam (Netherlands) and Paris (France), and operating centres in Manila (Philippines) and Yangon (Myanmar). It also keeps sales and marketing offices in the aforementioned locations plus Seoul, Shanghai, Taipei, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Hanoi, Singapore, Jakarta, Kathmandu, New Delhi, Kuala Lumpur, London, Athens, Milan, New York and São Paulo.

See also Weathernews LiVE, an internet television channel

References

External links Official website Global website in English Weather portal for Japan

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Weathernews Inc.

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Weathernews Inc. claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Weathernews Inc. before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Weathernews Inc. ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Weathernews Inc.

In research: Weathernews Inc. appears in earth science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Weathernews Inc. in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Weathernews Inc. is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Companies based in Chiba Prefecture, Japanese companies established in 1986, Meteorological companies, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Weathernews Inc. outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Weathernews Inc. in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Weathernews Inc. means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Weathernews Inc. out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Weathernews Inc. in simple terms?

Why does Weathernews Inc. matter?

Because it connects several earth science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Weathernews Inc.?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Weathernews Inc..