Environmentally friendly and highly durable bagworm silk is set to be used in a commercial application for the first time, according to a Nagoya-based firm. Bagworm moth larvae expel the versatile ...

Phan Thi Thuan's family have been making silk for generations, growing and harvesting the threads from silkworms themselves to create luxury garments. But making lotus silk is different.

Kowa has developed the brand name Minolon for the new material, drawing on "minomushi," the Japanese name for bagworms. The company said it plans to invest tens of billions of yen in a bid to boost ...

At the time, raw silk became the country's largest export, as the silk industries in France and Italy had been hit by an epidemic of silkworm disease. At one point, Japan was the world's biggest ...