Long, long ago, before Covid, I raised some questions about the lack of public demonstrations in Japan in support of urgent action on climate, and the lack of headway of Green parties there. In relation to this, it is interesting to note the results of a global survey by the UN Development Programme. Clicking through to the report, one finds that Japan has the third highest level of belief in the climate emergency (79% of respondents, behind only the UK and Italy, both at 81%). It's also notable that belief in the climate emergency in Japan is strong across age groups. The proportion of over-60s in Japan believing in the climate emergency was 77%, second only to the UK (78%); 81% of under-18s in Japan also hold this belief.

However, compared to some other countries, in Japan the proportion of believers in the climate emergency who 'say that we should do everything necessary, urgently in response' is not quite so high - though still a significant majority. This figure is 62% (17th highest among countries). That compares to 78% in Italy and 77% in the UK, which are at the top. The picture from the survey is that a very high proportion in Japan believe in the climate emergency, but almost 40% of those people would not say that it's necessary to do everything necessary to respond urgently. This may start to help towards an explanation of why public demonstrations and other public action about response to climate crisis have been less visible in Japan.

A rather similar picture is evident in the report in terms of responses to particular types of policy response. In Japan, 59% back investment in green industry and jobs, for example - a solid majority, but only the 7th highest among G20 countries. There was no majority in Japan for making companies pay for their pollution, unlike in 7 out of 12 other high-income countries. On the other hand, perhaps unsurprisingly, respondents in Japan were among the keenest on reducing food waste (72% in favour).

Peter Cave
Senior Lecturer in Japanese Studies
Research Postgraduate Director, Modern Languages and Cultures
SALC, University of Manchester
Samuel Alexander Building
Oxford Road
Manchester M13 9PL
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)161 275 3195
www.manchester.ac.uk/research/peter.cave/

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