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Paper short abstract

This paper evaluates the alignment between Japan’s international environmental commitments and domestic sustainability priorities toward 2050. The paper finds Japan advances green norms strategically while prioritizing energy security, industrial competitiveness, and Indo-Pacific influence.

Paper long abstract

This paper examines how environmental challenges, particularly decarbonization commitments toward 2050, reshape Japan’s approach to regional and global governance. Framed through the lens of public diplomacy and multi-stakeholder environmental policymaking, the study evaluates Japan’s dual strategy of advancing international sustainability norms while addressing domestic resource and energy security imperatives. Through a comparative analysis of key literature, national policy frameworks, regional cooperation initiatives such as the Asia Zero Emission Community (AZEC) and the Asia Energy Transition Initiative (AETI), and Japan-driven innovation pathways including hydrogen, LNG, offshore renewables, and perovskite solar technologies, the paper explores the strategic drivers behind Japan’s green mainstreaming and the coherence between its external commitments and internal sustainability priorities. Primary data from semi-structured interviews across public, private, and third-sector actors further illuminate institutional motivations, economic-environmental policy convergence, and areas of implementation tension. The findings demonstrate that Japan positions green governance as a tool for international leadership, industrial competitiveness, and diplomatic norm-setting, yet prioritizes technologies and policy designs that reinforce national security interests and state-business coordination. The paper concludes that Japan’s green governance model is neither purely activist-driven nor externally imposed, but strategically negotiated, domestically anchored, and outward-projected as a pillar of Indo-Pacific influence and green economic statecraft.

Keywords: Japan, green governance, environmental diplomacy, public diplomacy, decarbonization, energy security, Indo-Pacific, multi-stakeholder governance, hydrogen policy, perovskite solar innovation.