Japan (日本)

1. Introduction

Gender equity in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) pledges and decision-making is an increasingly pervasive, yet still nascent point of discussion. Since 2015, when 191 parties to the United Nations Framework Convention of Climate Change (UNFCCC) signed on to the Paris Agreement, governments have steadily built ambitious climate plans based on their financial capital, adaptive capacities, natural resources, and re-evaluation of current emissions profiles and energy plans. Yet, many NDCs have not centered climate justice and gender equity, rather solely considering their specific needs and responsibilities to reduce carbon emissions through technical evaluations and improvements in energy efficiency, investment in renewables, and transition to decarbonized societies.

This gender research and analysis of Japan’s NDCs sought to identify the degree to which gender equity and equitable decision-making is implemented in Japanese climate policy and transition to become a decarbonized society. Through a comprehensive literature review on gender and NDCs, intersectional analysis of Japan’s original and updated NDCs, and assessment of other Parties’ NDCs who have successfully integrated gender into their climate policies and implementation, this report addresses the following question: What is the state of gender equity outlined by the Government of Japan (GoJ) in their NDC, and what are the areas of redress to improve social and gender equity in Japan’s climate policies and implementation? This report will feed into a larger project by Care About Climate to understand the integration of gender issues in climate policy globally and to offer insights into how countries can integrate these recommendations to improve their NDCs in the buildup to COP26 in Glasgow.

2. Gender Equity and Social Inclusion in NDCs

The most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report urged climate actors to observe the urgency of stakeholder reduction in carbon emission, underscoring how every region will face dramatically significant issues related to climate change (IPCC, 2021). Yet these implications are not distributed evenly: flooding, heatwaves, rising seawater, and poor air pollution will disproportionately affect marginalized communities, such as young and older people, women, and Global South communities. The climate crisis has imposed devastating ramifications on these climate-vulnerable communities, who have already experienced social exclusion prior to the worsening degradation of the Earth’s atmosphere over the past decades. 

More specifically around issues of gender in the NDCs, previous research conducted on the references to gender and equity within updated NDCs revealed that while there is increasing Party recognition to address the implications of gender equality in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction, no NDCs concretely write of this necessity within the policy themselves, nor do they operationalize it in practice (Gender Climate Tracker, 2021). Furthermore, of all of the NDCs that were submitted in 2016, only 64 of them alluded to women or gender; this is further compounded by the issue that these countries are non-Annex 1 countries (Gender Climate Tracker, 2021), indicating that while they are more ambitious in their integration of women’s equity in climate policy and intervention, they are the least equipped to dealing with climate change through possessing a significantly smaller carbon footprint vis-a-vis Annex 1 countries. Furthermore, non-Annex 1 countries primarily focus on adaptation, given the immediate and dire impacts the climate crisis has already rendered in their local communities. Consequently, this has resulted in an absence of discussion of gender equity and social inclusion in climate mitigation plans.

Globally, women remain undervalued and underused in formal economies, particularly in the climate sector. To exemplify, according to Banca d’Italia, a lack of women’s integration into the economic sector has cost about 7% of the Italian national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (Cazzola, 2018). Japan is not an aberration in this regard, and despite the critical nature for the Ministry of Environment (MoE) to address critical social and gendered gaps to shape more equitable climate action, integration of gender-responsive mechanisms and narratives in Japan’s NDC has been scant.

3. Japan’s First and Updated NDC Submission 

In the first submission of Japan’s NDC, it sets a GHG emissions reduction of 26% by the year 2030 (GoJ, 2015). This target has been chastised due to documented evidence that if all parties who pledged commitments in the Paris Agreement abided by this same level of emissions reduction, it could not sustain the global efforts to keep global warming just under 2°C above pre-industrial levels, rather hover around 3-4°C (Climate Action Tracker, 2016). On page 4, Japan’s NDC states, “The INDC was considered through discussions open to the public at the Joint Experts’ Meeting of the Central Environment Council (Subcommittee on Global Warming Measurement after 2020, Global Environment Committee) and the Industrial Structure Council (INDC WG, Global Environment Subcommittee, Committee on Industrial Science and Technology Policy and Environment)” (GoJ, 2015). This original submission reflects the heavy presence of technical actors in the shaping of the NDC, but a clear omission of women’s groups, youth, and civil societies in shaping climate policy. 

On Table 1 on page 1 titled “Estimated emissions of energy-originated CO2 in each sector,” the GoJ attributes the leading drivers of emissions to industry and commercial actors (GoJ, 2015). Opportunities for redress to achieve the emissions reduction of 26% included greater attention to steel and iron efficiency, as well as retrofitting of buildings in commercial and industrial sectors, among others. The energy strategy outlined in this NDC fails the necessity to address the pervasiveness and increasingly important role of coal plants in Japan, underscoring inadequate targets in this NDC vis-a-vis other countries’ plans. Other measures outlined in the NDC include the proposal of using the Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM), which carries the potential of reducing domestic reductions through a credit system with the Global South (GoJ, 2015). Yet despite this attempt at offsetting carbon, this NDC lacks mention of the social or gendered ramifications of the climate crisis on women, youth, or Indigenous communities in Japan, and limits its plan for climate ambition to a highly technical plan. Consequently, the NDC was heavily criticized for its unsustainable and low-achieving goals from the international community, applying pressure for the GoJ to restructure their NDC for more ambitious and equitable pledges in 2020.

Notably, since Japan’s first submission, the 2020 updated submission outlined greater and more ambitious ways of reducing domestic carbon emissions. Of the various highlights and achievements, Japan’s NDC disclosed its successful ability to reduce its GHG emissions from 2014 to 2017 for five consecutive years (GoJ, 2020). While original commitments of 26% were chastised by the international community, particularly given Japan’s status as a heavy emitting and highly industrialized country capable of re-distributing its budgets to respond to the climate crisis domestically and to non-Annex 1 countries, significant changes took place over the past year due to a change in governance and political leadership. 

Since both submissions, Japan experienced a change in party leadership, wherein longtime Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced his resignation, to be succeeded by now Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga in September 2020. This brought about rejuvenation and reassessment of domestic contributions to reducing emissions, with Prime Minister Suga announcing in April of 2021 additional efforts to curb emissions by 46% under 2013 levels, a 20% increase from the earlier goal set out in the updated NDC submission under Abe’s tenure (Yamaguchi, 2021). In line with other heavy gas-emitting actors like the European Union, Japan set its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050, affirming greater alignment with the global strategy to become a decarbonized society.

Despite this, Japan’s updated NDC has still left significant areas for improvement. For instance, there is a continual denial or dismissal of the role that women can play in greening the supply chain of various carbon-emitting sectors. Furthermore, the 2020 NDC did not reflect greater inclusiveness in the multi-stakeholders involved in the decision-making process to shape the NDC. This reflects Japan’s neglect in implementing a gender or intersectional approach to produce their mitigation and adaptation strategies to curb the climate crisis. Furthermore, while 46% GHG emissions reductions are a significant jump from their original NDC, research has estimated that Japan will likely need to reduce more than 60% below 2013 levels by 2030 to be consistent with global efforts to hover around 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels (Climate Action Tracker, 2021). Sectorally, Japan’s NDC still fails to explicitly mention its plan to phase out emission-heavy sectors such as the coal industry despite being heavily reliant on it for power generation; while Japan has maintained its commitment to building a zero-carbon society by 2050, the infrastructural and behavioural changes needed to ensure this comes to fruition has still not been addressed.

4. Situating Japan’s NDCs amongst Global Ambitions

In line with Japan’s ambitious targets in their NDCs, global estimates suggest that decarbonization initiatives in electricity, transport, and construction can consequently produce about 18 million jobs by 2030, projecting increased job growth of 0.32% in Asia and the Pacific (Cazzola, 2018). Japanese companies like Hitachi which have committed to long-term reduction targets for carbon emissions have discussed which elements of their value chain can be audited and altered to improve efficiency in their production line in environmentally sound ways. From the procurement of materials to the line of production, transportation, disposal, and recycling of material, companies like Hitachi exemplify increased attempts of corporate responsibility to reduce GHG emissions. Some of their commitments include enhancing water, sewage, and energy efficiency of operational sites, and producing energy-efficient home and consumer appliances as well as vehicle electrification (Hitachi, 2020). Capitalizing on changing corporate behaviour calls attention to new potential in addressing gendered segregation in Japan’s workforce. Training women to work in energy-efficient sectors and renewables to respond to Japan’s proclivity to omit the training of women in STEM can offer new employment prospects for Japanese women in the climate sector.

However, despite these opportunities, current analyses of Japan’s climate ambitions are still lagging behind countries like the UK, which have comparatively set out far larger emission reduction targets of 78% by 2035 (Yamaguchi, 2021). Furthermore, countries like the Marshall Islands and Norway have taken steps to emphasize the importance of gender equality in their NDCs (Gender Climate Tracker, 2021), while Japan has yet to mention gender in any part of their NDC. It is thus critical to not only have gender champions and women groups who understand the contextual realities of Japanese women in society and their capabilities in contributing to a changing workforce, but to have them inform the NDC and climate intervention.

5. Recommendations for Greater Social and Gender Equity in Japan’s NDC

There are several recommendations that have been identified due to this gender analysis. Firstly, given Japan’s increased commitment to reducing domestic GHGs and reforming emission-heavy sectors, the MoE will have to formulate a new Basic Energy Plan that will be consistent with the amended target, including measures to phase out or reduce coal and invest in renewables. Secondly, to examine the efficacy of women’s integration in climate policy and to determine whether opportunities for women in a greener and decarbonized workforce have improved, it will be critical for the MoE to collect gender-disaggregated data on sectoral workforces, such as the energy sector and environmental policy sector. 

Moreover, greater attention to gender-responsive budgeting in mitigation strategies as well as greater inclusion of civil societies advocating for marginalized communities in Japan, such as Indigenous Ainu and Okinawan people, women, and young people, is critical to advancing a more equitable and progressive NDC. This will enable Japanese women and allies to integrate their knowledge on gendered gaps in the climate sector to inform interventions to ensure greater gender parity within the renewable sectors and to provide input on the NDCs. Lastly, as it relates to climate interventions, the renewable energy sector is a heavily gender-unbalanced sector, yet Japan has been on the forefront with other countries like the US and Germany to increase its potential for future employment (Cazzola, 2018). As heavy-emitting countries like Japan transition to a low-carbon economy, it is critical to understand how women’s participation in the workforce can ensure a successful and just transition while simultaneously addressing gender imbalances in the workforce. 

6. Conclusion

Although women comprise approximately 44% of the entire Japanese workforce, a significant portion of women’s labour is attributable to part-time, low-paying, and temporary employment (Statistics Bureau of Japan, 2020). Increasing digitization and automation of jobs have created new jobs, but have also threatened the existence of others. Particularly in Japan, many jobs-in-transition that are currently being digitized and automated are low-paying occupations held by women (Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, 2020). As Japan explores pathways to a just transition, whereby emission-heavy occupations will be steered into greener jobs, there lies the potential for women in the workforce to access and contribute. Previous interventions, most recently the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, demonstrated the potential of the MoE to build off the momentum of the Olympics to shape public opinion in Japan around single-use plastic and encourage sustainability initiatives in their homes. This notion underscores the importance of changing public narratives and the effectiveness of doing so in informing more responsible citizen action. Similar approaches can be undertaken to create a critical mass in Japan to better understand and appreciate the role of women in addressing the climate crisis, and in society at large.

The transition to a decarbonized society will naturally face various bumps in the road, particularly around the expansion of renewables, distribution of new and greener jobs, and the realities of who will benefit and suffer from the implications of this transition. Despite these anticipated challenges, it would be remiss to omit the many useful contributions that Japanese women in the environment and climate sector can have, particularly as greater proportions of women are increasingly able to attain higher education and thus offer robust skills to shape climate policy and interventions. Particularly with Japan’s rapidly changing age demographics, it is necessary to not only think about a transition towards a decarbonized society given a declining workforce, but to also acknowledge the fundamental structural inequities which have hindered the participation and involvement of Japanese women in the workplace. Thus, Japan’s new climate ambitions to curb domestic emissions to limit global warming to just 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels necessitates Japan to include women in the decision-making process to shape forthcoming NDCs, participate in building interventions to reduce emissions in heavy-emitting sectors, and increase women’s participation in green jobs and the facilitation of a just transition. 

7. References

• “1.5°C-consistent benchmarks for enhancing Japan’s 2030 climate target,” Climate Action Tracker, March 2021.

• “Achieving a Decarbonized Society: Efforts to Achieve a Decarbonized Society,” Hitachi Sustainability Report 2020, 33-44. 

• “Climate Target Update Tracker Japan,” Climate Action Tracker, April 2021,  https://climateactiontracker.org/climate-target-update-tracker/japan/. 

• “Country Profiles: Quick Analysis,” Gender Climate Tracker, 2021,  https://genderclimatetracker.org/gender-ndc/quick-analysis. 

• Emanuele Cazzola, “The role of women in the decarbonization path,” Energia, ambiente e innovazione, Quadro Internazionale (2018): 120-125.

• IPCC, 2021: Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Masson-Delmotte, V., P. Zhai, A. Pirani, S. L. Connors, C. Péan, S. Berger, N. Caud, Y. Chen, L. Goldfarb, M. I. Gomis, M. Huang, K. Leitzell, E. Lonnoy, J. B. R. Matthews, T. K. Maycock, T. Waterfield, O. Yelekçi, R. Yu and B. Zhou (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press. In Press.

• “Japan,” Climate Action Tracker, November 2016, https://climateactiontracker.org/countries/japan/. 

• Mari Yamaguchi, “Japan raises emissions reduction target to 46% by 2030,” AP, April 2021, https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-climate-yoshihide-suga-carbon-neutrality-summits-3690e8078574dd69de658c60b6d4a167. 

• Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, “Population aged 15 years old and over by labour force status, status in employment, type of employment (employee by number of persons engaged in enterprise), duration of employment contract, and agri-/non-agriculture [Data set],” Labour Force Survey, January 2020.

• Statistics Bureau of Japan, “Chapter 12: Labour,” Statistical Handbook of Japan 2020, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, March 2020.

• “Submission of Japan’s Intended Nationally Determined Contribution,” Ministry of Environment, Government of Japan, 2015.

• “Submission of Japan’s Nationally Determined Contributions,” Ministry of Environment, Government of Japan, 2020.