Lately, Japan’s extreme weather – record-breaking heat followed by flash floods – seems to parallel the extremes in national politics. Japan’s ruling party may be preparing to elect a new leader, but the foundations of its traditional rule have already been shaken by rising costs of living and deepening social discontent.
Taking a page from U.S. President Donald Trump’s playbook, some politicians have offered a convenient scapegoat for economic anxiety: migrant workers who, they claim, are driving down wages and consuming scarce resources. This approach is fundamentally wrong and serves no one.
While far-right parties who won big in the last upper house elections claim to protect what is Japanese “first,” the country’s traditional values have never been rooted in division and hate. As the first article of Japan’s famous 17-article constitution, written in the 7th century, states, “Harmony is to be valued.” But such harmony is now under threat from simplistic scapegoating that targets immigrants rather than addressing the real drivers of our economic woes.
Blaming foreign workers may offer political convenience, but it distracts from confronting one of the true culprits behind Japan’s rising costs of living: climate change.
A recent study showed that climate-induced extreme weather is driving up the prices of food worldwide by impacting yields and supply chains. The extreme heat in 2024 contributed to rice costs in Japan increasing by 48 percent. And it’s not just happening in Japan. Many basic food products such as vegetables, cocoa and coffee have been hit by price hikes following extreme climate events. What were once considered “rare” disruptions have become increasingly common.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, climate change is wreaking havoc on Japan’s food system: crops such as rice and fruits are producing smaller and lower-quality yields, fish catches are declining, and livestock are producing less milk and getting sick more often. While Japan has climate change adaptation plans, it doesn’t have a clear plan to tackle the problem at its root: to phase out fossil fuels and accelerate a just transition to nature-based renewable energy.
Japan’s heavy reliance on imported fossil fuels for electricity is also driving up overall inflation. Imported fossil fuels, with their volatile pricing, have made electricity more expensive for everyone. Billionaires might not care, but for Japan’s poor and working class who cannot survive without cooling, this era of unprecedented warming brings heavy burdens that ruling party leaders have so far failed to address.
Japanese leaders’ accountability in the cost of living and climate crisis is clear. Japan remains one of the world’s biggest public financiers of gas and oil production. At home, Japan also continues to extend a lifeline to fossil fuels, for instance by allowing the electrical utility company J-Power to install a new facility in a 40-year-old coal-fired power plant in Nagasaki.
New research into Japan’s climate and energy spending has also found that the government’s budget for fossil fuels – including hydrogen, ammonia, and carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technology – has increased from last year, accounting for 38 percent of the total. On the other hand, the budget for renewable energy is very small, at less than 5 percent of total climate and energy spending.
Pouring money into fossil fuels not only contradicts Japan’s global climate commitments and locks in catastrophic heating, but it also throws away taxpayer money that could instead go toward healthcare, education, or welfare.
The onus rests on Japan’s next leader to address the social unrest and cultural divisions driven by economic anxiety and climate impacts. To decisively address these challenges and offer a way forward that does not exclude minority groups, urgent and transformative climate action must be at the top of the political agenda.
With its technological and economic prowess, Japan is positioned to deliver affordable renewable energy, create green jobs, and hit climate targets that are necessary for a peaceful and stable future. With the United States abandoning climate leadership, the world needs a new champion. Japan could still be that leader – if the next prime minister starts by cooling off sentiments driven by enmity and hate, and delivering climate action as an act of love and necessity.
In 2024, for the first time average global temperatures breached the 1.5 degree Celsius heating limit for almost an entire year. It’s no coincidence that both climate chaos and political instability escalated shortly thereafter. It’s time to draw the line – for a safer, more livable planet that is the true foundation of harmony.