Author: Kazuhiko Takeuchi and Nicholas Turner, UNU-ISP

Two months after the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake and tsunami, the full extent of their tragic physical and human consequences is all too clear. But the natural disasters, and the subsequent nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, also have wider implications for Japan’s domestic and foreign policies.

The impact of this ‘triple disaster’ upon Japan’s plans to tackle climate change may be particularly strong. Read more…

Author: Kazuhiko Takeuchi, UNU

On Monday 7 September, 2009 at the Asahi World Environment Forum, the new Japanese Prime Minister, Yukio Hatoyama, announced that the government would reduce Japan’s greenhouse gas emissions by 25 per cent from 1990 levels, by the year 2020 – this is equivalent to one-third from current levels in just 11 years.

The pledge is in contrast to his predecessor, former PM Taro Aso, who proposed a target of only an 8 per cent reduction from 1990 levels. Mr. Aso argued that while this target may seem low, it will be achieved through purely domestic emissions reductions (and not from carbon credit offsets, or simply buying carbon credits from reductions made overseas), and is based on what is technologically and politically feasible in the given time frame. Read more…