To all participants to the SSJ Forum,

Allow me to introduce myself: I work as a researcher on Japanese climate policy - both domestic and international. My experience in this field so far includes working for two years for the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, two further years advising energy and carbon market analysis company Point Carbon (now part of the Thompson Reuters group), and recently contributing to the Fridtjof Nansen Institute, a Norwegian think tank dealing with environmental and energy matters. Since this year I am also a Ph.D. Candidate at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, working on global renewables policy.

I would like to present to you my newest briefing paper, 'Japan after the Quake: Prospects for Climate Policy'. The purpose of the paper is to inform outsiders of the state of the Japanese policy discussion on climate change in the wake of the terrible tragedy of March 11. In it I try to disentangle the complex interplay between domestic energy policy and Japan's domestic and international policy on climate change mitigation. The ultimate goal is to evaluate in a cool manner Japan's promise to continue engaging in mitigation activities even in the absence of a international legal instrument to continue the Kyoto Protocol's legacy after 2012.

This paper means to help mainly outside stakeholders (negotiators, businessmen, activists, etc.) make sense of the Japanese decision-making process. As such, it is the result of many interviews with Japanese civil servants, businessmen, academic researchers, NGO representatives, etc. in additional to lengthy reviews of the Japanese media, mainstream or otherwise, in the wake of the events of this spring. However, it can be read also in reverse, by allowing Japanese stakeholders to understand how their country is perceived from the outside.

I submit this paper to you in the hope to stimulate the ongoing lively discussion on the future of Japan's energy and climate policy. Any errors reported in the paper are mine and mine alone, and I would be happy to answer any questions or listen to any comments you might have.

The document (8 pages) can be accessed from the following website:

http://www.fni.no/doc&pdf/FNI-Climate-Policy-Perspectiv
es-1.pdf

Thank you very much for your time and consideration.

Yours,

Alexandru Luta,
Ph.D. Cand.,
Tokyo Institute of Technology