The newly appointed director of Japan’s green transition agency has welcomed criticisms over the country’s progress on decarbonising its economy, giving assurances that they will be considered in an upcoming review.
Yasuaki Yoneyama, who was selected to lead the GX Acceleration Agency in July, said: “We are moving maybe slowly but I’m very much conscious of criticisms in some corners of the international community, as well as in Japan.”
Yoneyama told a media briefing this week that critical perspectives would be considered as part of a scheduled review of the legislation underpinning Japan’s Green Transformation (GX) policies, due within the next three years.
“If you have any concerns, please continue voicing them,” he added. “Our legislation comes along with a review clause and we will take into account all feedback.”
Yoneyama’s comments suggest a softening of tone compared to previous government responses, which have pushed back against criticisms from investors and green groups over a perceived lack of speed and ambition around renewable energy adoption, coal phase-out and fossil fuel reduction.
This includes concerns over the viability of Japan’s plans to develop alternative fuels such as ammonia – which can theoretically be combined with fossil fuels to make combustion less polluting – and ramping up the use of carbon capture and storage (CCS).
Critics have argued that prioritising unproven new technologies would prolong the use of fossil fuels when cleaner alternatives are available and delay the work needed to cut emissions.
Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) established the GX Acceleration Agency in 2024 with a dual growth and climate change mandate.
It operates Japan’s emissions-trading scheme and reinvests the proceeds in green projects, finances private-sector decarbonisation projects and undertakes related R&D.
Responsible Investor was also told at the briefing that Japanese authorities are putting together a roadmap to establish Tokyo as Asia’s largest sustainable investment market, which will be presented at the Tokyo Sustainable Finance Forum later this month.
Avoiding backlash
Japanese government figures, such as former GX Acceleration Agency head Hideki Takada, has previously defended the country’s long-term energy strategy as being “practical”.
In further comments, Yoneyama said that treading carefully when implementing climate policies was intended to protect against pushback that could hamper the country’s long-term progress on achieving its climate goals.
“We don’t want any kind of a serious backlash of public opinion from politicians, or concerns from some corners of the industry. We want to make sure that we reach the ultimate objective of carbon neutrality by 2050, and for that we need to think about political economy perspectives,” he said.
“Otherwise, we have seen some countries leaving the Paris Agreement and we want to avoid this.”
Yoneyama cited nuclear energy as one example of a transition-related activity where Japan has to be “really conscious about the political backlash”, but observed that the low-carbon energy source was re-entering the energy mix “very, very slowly”.
Separately, Yoneyama sought to assuage concerns that the issuance of Japan’s transition bonds – or GX bonds – would be negatively impacted, after prime minister Sanae Takaichi said this week that Japan would “control” new bond issuance amid record-high government bond yields.
“GX bonds are treated separately to regular Japan government bonds. This allows us to send a message to the market that GX government incentives are self-financed,” he said.
GX bonds reached approximately ¥4.2 trillion ($25.9 billion; €22.6 billion) in cumulative issuance as of March 2026, part of a 10-year, ¥20 trillion sovereign transition bond programme. For fiscal year 2026, the planned auction amount is expected to be around ¥1 trillion.
The bonds will be repaid via a surcharge on fossil fuel imports from 2028 and emissions permit auctions from 2033, which will be collected by the agency.
AloJapan.com