In the lead-up to COP30, the 30th annual U.N. climate meeting, Japan’s new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, announced that she was skipping the summit to focus on a special parliamentary session at home. Her predecessor, former Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, also did not attend last year’s COP29.
Japan’s absence from recent climate summits reflects the low priority given to the climate crisis in national politics — and increasingly, among the public. Further focus on climate change and its impacts in school curriculum is helping. But unless Japan turns climate awareness into civic responsibility, apathy will rise along with the temperature.
How disengaged are everyday Japanese? According to a survey by Ipsos conducted in January, concern about climate change remains high in Japan, but the sense of urgency has weakened since 2021. Only 40% of respondents agreed with the statement, “If individuals like me do not act now to combat climate change, we will be failing future generations” — a drop of 19 percentage points since 2021 and the lowest among the 32 countries surveyed.
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