Stiffening its policy on the environment, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry drew a clear line July 11 separating itself from Australia, which advocates a flexible approach to tackling global warming.
Speaking at a regularly scheduled news conference, MITI chief Shinji Sato said he will clarify Japan's stance during his four-day visit to Australia starting July 13. "It seems that Australia does not understand our stance," he said. "So I would like to tell them that we will be taking a strict stance on this global issue."
Sato, who is to attend celebrations to mark the 40th anniversary of the bilateral trade treaty, will meet with Australian Prime Minister John Howard, Tim Fischer, deputy prime minister and minister for trade, and John Moore, minister for industry, science and tourism. Japan is to host a major environmental conference in Kyoto in December at which more than 150 signatory nations to the 1994 U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change will decide how to reduce carbon dioxide emissions after 2000. They have already agreed that all industrialized nations will reduce such emissions to 1990 levels by 2000.