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Precedent, Progress, and Missed Opportunities: Conflict and Debates over Legislating Climate Change Emissions Reductions in Japan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

Keegan Cothern  and
Junichi Hasegawa
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Abstract

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This article considers the negotiations and historical context of Japan's two major climate change bills. We find that the political approach to emissions reductions has resulted in non-specific, iterative reduction commitments from 1998, while attempts to introduce reduction schemes or taxes and define specific long-term targets, as in 2010, largely failed due to stalwart opposition from the energy and heavy industry sectors. Negotiations were further complicated by inter-ministry conflict, the often-rotating prime ministership, and the uncertain role of nuclear power. While these earlier efforts and changing international standards laid track for legislative revisions in 2021, their ultimate realization remains uncertain.

Keywords

climate change legislationpolicy changeemissions reductionsJapan ministries and inter-ministry conflictpolitical regime change
Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 21 , Issue 9 , September 2023 , e1
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2023

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