The International Monetary Fund deleted a sentence critical of Japan's continued financing of high-emissions coal projects from a staff mission statement on the Japanese economy, a copy of an earlier draft viewed by Reuters shows.
The IMF issued the report on Jan. 28 at the conclusion of a routine country surveillance mission to Tokyo to review Japan's economic policies.
The published concluding statement from IMF staff focused on Japan's need to scale back pandemic-relief measures as its economy recovers. It included a section entitled "Shifting to a Low-carbon Economy" that made no mention of coal but said meeting carbon emissions reduction goals would be especially challenging for Japan given its heavy reliance on fossil fuels for energy since the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.