Japan as an Underachiever: Major Power Status in Climate Change Politics

Abstract

This chapter examines Japan’s status as a major power through the case of the international discourse on climate change, a key issue in the twenty-first century. In particular, it focuses on efforts to establish a post-2012 international institutional architecture to address the climate change problem. This issue presents mounting political stakes, given both a great diversity in individual state preferences, and a growing “competition” for status in promoting a new institutional architecture aimed at creating a new problem-solving structure to address concerns over global climate change.

I am grateful for funding provided by the Environmental Research and Technology Development Fund of the Ministry of Environment, Japan (S-6, H-91), and Mitsui & Co., Ltd., Environmental Fund. I would like to thank IDDRI at SciencesPo, Paris for their congenial support during Marie Curie Incoming Fellowship of the European Commission.