Japan’s $5.2bn investment in carbon capture technology since 2014 has come under fire from environmental groups, which accuse the government of using public money to prolong fossil fuel use at home and across Southeast Asia.
A report by Oil Change International, a non-profit that focuses on “exposing the true costs of fossil fuels”, claims that Japan’s subsidies for carbon capture and storage are helping companies such as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, JAPEX and Inpex expand their fossil fuel interests while exporting captured CO2 to countries including Malaysia and Australia.
According to Oil Change International, the Japanese government has committed $5.2bn in public funds to carbon capture and fossil hydrogen projects since 2014, with around $364m spent on the Tomakomai CCS Demonstration Project alone.
That facility captured about 100,000 tonnes of CO2 annually between 2016 and 2019, and the report estimates Japan would need up to 2,400 similar projects to meet its 2050 goal of capturing between 120 and 240 million tonnes each year.
Japan’s current pipeline includes nine priority CCS projects selected by the Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security, four of which are designed to export captured CO2 to Malaysia and Australia.
However, industry groups argue that CCS remains an essential tool for decarbonising hard-to-abate sectors such as steel, cement and refining. The Japan Gas Association and other energy bodies have said that carbon capture, alongside low-carbon hydrogen and ammonia, will be necessary to meet national emissions targets.
MHI, one of Japan’s leading CCS developers, has stated that the technology “plays a vital role in global efforts to reduce emissions” and is already being deployed in projects across Japan and overseas. Supporters of CCS also point to the role it could play in enabling blue hydrogen production and reducing industrial emissions in regions where renewable deployment is slower.
Japan currently has only one fully operational carbon capture facility, the Tomakomai demonstration project in Hokkaido, which has injected around 300,000 tonnes of CO2 over its lifetime.
In 2024, the government selected nine advanced CCS projects for priority development with a combined storage capacity of around 20 million tonnes per year, around 30% of which is expected to involve export beyond Japan’s borders.
Under Japan’s roadmap, these projects are expected to collectively capture up to 13 million tonnes of CO2 a year by 2030. Longer term, Japan is targeting a storage capacity of 120 to 240 million tonnes per year by 2050, implying steady growth as the technology matures.
AloJapan.com