ABSTRACT
Although the 1997 Kyoto Conference was hosted by the Japanese government, since then the government and Japan’s industrial sector have been reluctant to tackle climate change protection. Especially since the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011, public concern has focused on how to reinstate electricity supplies and the reopening of nuclear plants rather than climate change issues (Hasegawa 2017). Even after the Paris Agreement was adopted, almost the same policy position was maintained. Why are Japanese government and industrial sector so reluctant to improve the protection? This chapter discusses the major characteristics of Japan’s climate change governance and political, and social backgrounds of this reluctance. It explores this question by analyzing documents, news articles, and interview data with key players involved in this issue. The decision-making process of the Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) of the 2030 Green House Gas (GHG) reduction target published in summer 2015 was a typical example of the outcome of the relatively closed political opportunity structure. This chapter analyzes the assumptions and the real intention of Japan’s INDC to be dependent on as many of the nuclear power plants and coal-fired plants as possible.
