Abstract
Over the past several decades, climate change litigation (CCL) has rapidly increased worldwide, mainly in Western countries. Accordingly, most scholarship has focused on those areas, and Japan has received scant attention. However, Japan had the first climate change case in 2017 and three other cases in 2018 and 2019, claiming injunction against the operation and construction of coal-fired power plants (CFPP). Considering that Japan still has many CFPPs in operation, there may be some obstacles that hinder the further development of Japanese CCL. This study investigates the obstacles that hinder the development of Japanese CCL. Some implications may be drawn through those abovementioned observations. First, it added another piece of empirical data of climate change cases in East Asia to global society. Especially, this study is the first piece that provided a detailed description and academic exploration of four Japanese climate cases in litigation. Considering that most literature on climate change cases remains in the Western countries so far, this supplement may be significant. Second, it attached a new field of climate change to the Japanese scholarship in policymaking litigation by locating it in the extension of the trajectory of the environmental litigation. Finally, it prospected one possible change of climate policy through further development of Japanese CCL, through the comparison with the trajectory of the past U.S. tobacco litigation.
Presenters
Masako IchiharaResearcher, Kyoto Climate Change Adaptation Center, Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, Kyoto, Japan
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2022 Special Focus - Responding to Climate Change as Emergency: Governing the Climate Emergency
KEYWORDS
Climate change litigation, Japan, Legal Opportunity Structure, Social movement
