On October 29th last year, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced that Japan would reduce its carbon emissions to net zero by 2050. This was a bold step, given that in the past, the Japanese government has said it only plans to reach net zero “at some point between 2050 and 2100.”
Has the Japanese government really bitten the bullet, and turned its back on carbon-emitting sources of energy? Or is PM Suga’s pledge just another instance of ‘greenwashing’ – the much-derided strategy of talking big on climate change, but not actually doing much to stop it?
Looking on the bright side, there has certainly been a big shift in attitude, not only on the part of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), but also on the part of big business.
In 2018, some of Japan’s biggest companies put their weight behind the Japan Climate Initiative (JCI), a new organisation that counts among its members 394 of Japan’s largest companies.
This January, 92 JCI member companies urged the government to commit to a target of sourcing 40-50% of the nation’s energy from renewable sources like wind, solar and hydro by 2030.
This echoed the call made in mid-2020 by Keizai Doyukai, a federation of business executives from 1,000 leading Japanese corporations, for the government to commit to a target of 40% renewables.
Pollution from a factory in Yamaguchi Prefecture. | Ka23 13, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Last November, CEOs from four JCI member companies—Sony, Ricoh, Kao, and Nissay Asset Management—met with Taro Kono, the Minister for Administrative Reform.
The head of Sony, Kenichiro Yoshida, delivered a blunt warning, Kono told the Financial Times. Unless Japan increased the amount of electricity it gets from renewable sources to 40% or more by 2030, companies like Sony would have no choice but move many of its production facilities overseas.
Big Japanese companies like Sony are under pressure to ditch oil and coal, not only from consumers anxious about the environmental crisis, but also foreign rivals who are seen as being more in step with the times.
They point to foreign rivals such as Apple, which has already said that it will stop working with suppliers who don’t use 100% renewable electricity by 2030.
For Sony to make the same commitment, it would have to switch a great deal of its production to Europe, where suppliers can abide by the demand to only use renewable energy.
Until Sony is able to use 100% green energy at its production facilities in Japan, it faces accusations of being behind the times - not a good look for a hi-tech giant.
Faced with such dramatic stakes, some Japanese companies have already bitten the green bullet. Japan’s biggest corporate banks have said they will no longer provide financing for new coal power plants (although they will continue to finance existing ones) and several major trading companies have said they will stop investing in coal mines.
For anyone who would like to see the Japanese government take more decisive action to combat global heating, these developments are certainly encouraging.
But there remains plenty of stubborn resistance from vested interests. The powerful Japan Business Federation (Keidanren) still supports the use of coal for some time to come, arguing that Japan’s energy security depends on coal.
And while Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) talks of phasing out “inefficient” coal plants, it has said nothing about what it plans to do with Japan’s efficient - but dirty – coal plants.
PM Suga has also been less strident than the leaders of some advanced economies in calling for the ‘greening’ of the global economy. True, he has committed to ensuring that all cars sold after 2035 are powered by electricity. But METI wants hybrid engines to be included in the term ‘electric’, which leaves plenty of wriggle room for petrol engine makers and petrol importers.
Most experts think that real change will only come about when the government introduces a carbon tax. Suga has said that his government will look into the idea but has yet to commit to it. Given that Keidanren is opposed to a carbon tax, he may well hit it into the long grass.
With so many vested interests with so much to lose from a switch to green energy sources, political will is more important than ever. The JCI has forged close links with leading politicians in the LDP, including two men in the running to take over from Yoshihide Suga, as and when his stint as PM comes to an end.
One is Taro Kono, the Minister for Administrative Reform; the other is Shinjirou Koizumi, the Minister for the Environment (and son of former PM Junichirou Koizumi).
Kono and Koizumi may well prove more willing to ruffle feathers than Suga. As for the incumbent PM, we’ll know a lot more about Suga’s commitment to the ‘greening’ of the Japanese economy when METI releases its latest Strategic Energy Plan in June.
On October 29th last year, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced that Japan would reduce its carbon emissions to net zero by 2050. This was a bold step, given that in the past, the Japanese government has said it only plans to reach net zero “at some point between 2050 and 2100.”
Has the Japanese government really bitten the bullet, and turned its back on carbon-emitting sources of energy? Or is PM Suga’s pledge just another instance of ‘greenwashing’ – the much-derided strategy of talking big on climate change, but not actually doing much to stop it?
Men installing solar panels in Yokohama, Japan. | CoCreatr, CC by SA 2.0 / © Flickr.com
Looking on the bright side, there has certainly been a big shift in attitude, not only on the part of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), but also on the part of big business.
In 2018, some of Japan’s biggest companies put their weight behind the Japan Climate Initiative (JCI), a new organisation that counts among its members 394 of Japan’s largest companies.
This January, 92 JCI member companies urged the government to commit to a target of sourcing 40-50% of the nation’s energy from renewable sources like wind, solar and hydro by 2030.
This echoed the call made in mid-2020 by Keizai Doyukai, a federation of business executives from 1,000 leading Japanese corporations, for the government to commit to a target of 40% renewables.
Pollution from a factory in Yamaguchi Prefecture. | Ka23 13, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Last November, CEOs from four JCI member companies—Sony, Ricoh, Kao, and Nissay Asset Management—met with Taro Kono, the Minister for Administrative Reform.
The head of Sony, Kenichiro Yoshida, delivered a blunt warning, Kono told the Financial Times. Unless Japan increased the amount of electricity it gets from renewable sources to 40% or more by 2030, companies like Sony would have no choice but move many of its production facilities overseas.
Big Japanese companies like Sony are under pressure to ditch oil and coal, not only from consumers anxious about the environmental crisis, but also foreign rivals who are seen as being more in step with the times.
They point to foreign rivals such as Apple, which has already said that it will stop working with suppliers who don’t use 100% renewable electricity by 2030.
For Sony to make the same commitment, it would have to switch a great deal of its production to Europe, where suppliers can abide by the demand to only use renewable energy.
Until Sony is able to use 100% green energy at its production facilities in Japan, it faces accusations of being behind the times - not a good look for a hi-tech giant.
Faced with such dramatic stakes, some Japanese companies have already bitten the green bullet. Japan’s biggest corporate banks have said they will no longer provide financing for new coal power plants (although they will continue to finance existing ones) and several major trading companies have said they will stop investing in coal mines.
For anyone who would like to see the Japanese government take more decisive action to combat global heating, these developments are certainly encouraging.
But there remains plenty of stubborn resistance from vested interests. The powerful Japan Business Federation (Keidanren) still supports the use of coal for some time to come, arguing that Japan’s energy security depends on coal.
And while Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) talks of phasing out “inefficient” coal plants, it has said nothing about what it plans to do with Japan’s efficient - but dirty – coal plants.
PM Suga has also been less strident than the leaders of some advanced economies in calling for the ‘greening’ of the global economy. True, he has committed to ensuring that all cars sold after 2035 are powered by electricity. But METI wants hybrid engines to be included in the term ‘electric’, which leaves plenty of wriggle room for petrol engine makers and petrol importers.
Most experts think that real change will only come about when the government introduces a carbon tax. Suga has said that his government will look into the idea but has yet to commit to it. Given that Keidanren is opposed to a carbon tax, he may well hit it into the long grass.
With so many vested interests with so much to lose from a switch to green energy sources, political will is more important than ever. The JCI has forged close links with leading politicians in the LDP, including two men in the running to take over from Yoshihide Suga, as and when his stint as PM comes to an end.
One is Taro Kono, the Minister for Administrative Reform; the other is Shinjirou Koizumi, the Minister for the Environment (and son of former PM Junichirou Koizumi).
Kono and Koizumi may well prove more willing to ruffle feathers than Suga. As for the incumbent PM, we’ll know a lot more about Suga’s commitment to the ‘greening’ of the Japanese economy when METI releases its latest Strategic Energy Plan in June.
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Sources:
"New Business Lobby Pushes Japan Decarbonization," Tokyo Business Today 26.2.21