Japan’s triple sustainability challenge

ABSTRACT

Starting with a broad overview of the need for urgent action concerning climate change globally, this paper then reviews the evolution of environmental policy in Japan up to and including green transformation (GX) measures taken under the Kishida administration, and an assessment of the changes still needed to achieve sustainability in Japan. An integrated approach has been adopted in Japan, encompassing the environment, the economy, and society, to achieve three transitions: first, to a de-carbonized society; second, to a circular economy; and third, to a ‘nature-positive’, decentralized society which co-exists with nature. This approach was signalled in the Regional Circular and Ecological concept in the Fifth Environmental Basic Plan of 2018, building on extensive discussions within the Ministry of Environment and with other ministries from 2014, in the wake of the 2011 triple earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disasters.

KEYWORDS:

• Environmental policy
• green transformation (GX)
• integrated approach
• Japan
• nature-positive
• sustainability

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tokutaro Nakai

Tokutaro Nakai is the Executive Advisor of Nippon Steel Corporation, Japan. He joined Japan’s Ministry of Finance in 1985, and was transferred to the Ministry of the Environment (MOE) in 2011. From 2020 to 2022 he was Vice Minister of MOE.