Japan is likely to draw a fair amount of attention at a meeting this week of policymakers and business leaders in Switzerland when Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda outlines the main agenda for Japan's presidency of the Group of Eight powers.
The government sees Fukuda's speech Saturday at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, otherwise known as the Davos forum, as a good opportunity to demonstrate Japan's leadership in fighting global warming, a top agenda item for the G8 summit this July in Hokkaido.
Fukuda plans to express his intention of setting a carbon emissions reduction goal for Japan beyond the 2012 expiration of the Kyoto Protocol and unveil a five-year, $10 billion aid package to support developing countries' efforts to combat global warming, government sources said.