My Vision No.70
2024.2Can Citizens’ Climate Assemblies
Help Society to Change?
The issue of climate change must be tackled cooperatively on a global scale.
In this issue of My Vision, we explore the possibilities offered by citizens’ climate assemblies, a new
initiative that involves citizen participation.

About This Issue
The Trend Towards Citizens’ Climate Assemblies Is Growing in Japan- We Are Seeing the Possibility of Spurring an Evolution of Representative Democracy
Shigeki Uno
Executive Vice President, NIRA / Professor, Institute of Social Science, The University of Tokyo

In 2023, extreme high temperatures were recorded in many parts of the world. UN Secretary-General
Antonio Guterres has once again communicated his sense that we face a crisis, and has criticized countries
for their delays in taking measures in response to global warming.
While the existing political system has failed to take effective measures, citizens’ climate assemblies, a new
initiative based on citizen participation, are expected to become more widespread in Japan and act as aspur for change.
How important are citizens’ climate assemblies?
What will it take to make this an effective initiative in Japan?
In this issue of My Vision, we sought the opinions of a number of interviewees with considerable experiencein this area: researchers, the Director of an environmental organization, and the head of a local government.
Keywords…Citizens’ climate assemblies, democracy, issue of climate change

Expert Opinions
Can Citizens’ Climate Assemblies Help Society to Change?
What is the significance of citizens’ climate assemblies?
What will it take to make this an effective initiative in Japan?

Discussion Involving Citizens Can Lead to Significant Citizen Participation in National Policy Through
Changes in Society as a Whole
Deliberative Discussion Among Citizens
Naoyuki Mikami

Seita Emori

Professor, Graduate School of Environmental Studies,
Nagoya University

Professor, Institute for Future Initiatives, The
University of Tokyo

Keywords…Mini-publics, the state of democracy,
decision-making mechanisms

Keywords…Procedural legitimacy, consensus-building
with public acceptance, structure of injustice

Deliberative Discussion Results in Climate Change
Being Viewed as a “Personal Matter”

Citizens’ Climate Assemblies May Achieve a
Breakthrough Towards Questioning the Roots of theSocial System

Akane Iwasaki

Kimiko Hirata

Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Agricultural Executive Director, Climate Integrateand Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo
Keywords…Action to change society, deliberative process, Keywords…Sense of personal involvement, collaboration
forward-looking perspective
involving citizen participation, gulf between the present
and the future we want to realize

Realizing a “Fully-inclusive” Civil Society ThroughDeliberative Discussion, with Local Governments
Taking the Lead
Tatsuo Igarashi
Mayor of Tsukuba City
Keywords…Basis for change in behavior, voice of thesilent majority, cost of democracy

Interview period：December, 2023
Interviewer: Haruka Watanabe（Research Coordinator &Research Fellow, NIRA)

Editor: Reiko Kanda, Maiko Sakaki and Tatsuya Yamaji. This is a translation of a paper originally published in Japanese.
NIRA bears full responsibility for the translation presented here.
Copyright Ⓒ 2024 by Nippon Institute for Research Advancement

1My Vision No.70
2024.2
About This Issue

The Trend Towards Citizens’ Climate Assemblies
Is Growing in Japan- We Are Seeing the Possibility of Spurring an Evolution of Representative Democracy
Citizens’ climate assemblies are finally taking root inJapan.
With the signing of the Paris Agreement in 2015, global
efforts towards the realization of decarbonized societies haveprogressed, in particular in Europe, where citizens' climate
assemblies were held in France and the United Kingdom from2019 to 2020. In addition to politicians, experts, private-sector
non-profit organizations, and other actors who have played a
Shigeki Uno
central role in combating climate change up to the present,
Executive Vice President, NIRA /ordinary citizens also participated in the discussions at these
Professor, Institute of Social
assemblies.
Science, The University of Tokyo
As in France, where the Citizens’ Convention for Climate
was held under the leadership of President Macron in response
to protests against a proposed increase in fuel tax and the rise of the “gilets jaunes” movement in fall
2018, these assemblies in part represent an objection to the current status of democracy, and have thepotential to make positive change in traditional election-centered representative democracy. In Japan,
with Climate Assembly Sapporo 2020 (Note 1) as the spur, the number of such assemblies isincreasing every year. In this issue of My Vision, we consider the current status of, and the challenges
faced by, citizens' climate assemblies in Japan.

A Possibility of Changing the Status Quo of Democracy
Why do citizens’ climate assemblies have the potential to change the current state of
democracy? Elected officials tend to focus their attention on local issues in specific areas (theirconstituencies, etc.) in order to cater to the wishes of their electorate. In addition, because they are
seeking reelection, they tend to prioritize issues that can feasibly be dealt with during their term ofoffice over those that require long-term efforts. As an organizer of the Climate Assembly Sapporo 2020,
Professor Naoyuki Mikami of Nagoya University’s Graduate School of Environmental Studies, points
out, “the traditional system of social decision-making has tended to put long-term issues such as
climate change on the back-burner.”
By contrast, ordinary citizens, who do not have to be concerned about elections, have theadvantage of being able to address climate change more freely and from a long-term perspective. In
particular, the use of a random drawing of lots to select citizen participants makes it possible for eventhose citizens who are not selected to think that they could have been selected. This contributes to afeeling of acceptance of the outcomes of the discussion and to a sense of the legitimacy of the procedure,
explains Professor Seita Emori of the University of Tokyo's Institute for Future Initiatives.
Above all, the virtue of citizens’ climate assemblies is the sense of being an active participantthat blossoms in the participating citizens. Although many citizens are interested in the issue ofclimate change, this does not immediately translate into concrete action. Assistant Professor Akane
Iwasaki of The University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences has served as

Editor: Reiko Kanda, Maiko Sakaki and Tatsuya Yamaji. This is a translation of a paper originally published in Japanese.
NIRA bears full responsibility for the translation presented here.
Copyright Ⓒ 2024 by Nippon Institute for Research Advancement

2My Vision No.70
2024.2a facilitator at numerous citizens' climate assemblies, and reports that participants often respondwith surprise that they might play a role in taking action to change society. It is only through acarefully designed deliberative process, which naturally includes information provided by experts,
that many participants are able to develop a sense that the issue is a personal matter.

What Are the Challenges Facing Citizens’ Climate Assemblies in Japan?
Nevertheless, it is clear that there are many challenges for the citizens’ climate assemblies inJapan. The first problem is the degree to which awareness of the issue of climate change has spreadamong the public, and the level of concern among the public in relation to the issue. According to asurvey (Note 2) conducted by the PEW Research Center in the United States in 2021, between 2015
and 2021, the percentage of respondents who answered “Very concerned” increased in many countries
when asked if they were concerned that global climate change would harm them at some point intheir lifetimes. In Japan, on the other hand, the percentage of respondents who answered “Veryconcerned” decreased by 8%. According to the Cabinet Office's 2020 Kikou hendou ni kansuru yoron
chousa (“Survey of Public Opinion on Climate Change”) (published in 2021) (Note 3), the 18-29 age
group represented the lowest percentage of respondents who answered that they were “Concerned”
about global environmental issues.
Kimiko Hirata, Executive Director of the think tank Climate Integrate, who is a long-term
veteran in addressing the issue of climate change, also feels hopeful about the movement towards
citizens’ climate assemblies among local governments, given that in the past in Japan, even whenawareness of the issue has increased, “the pendulum swings back to the status quo.” Nevertheless,Dr. Hirata tells us, a gulf remains between this major social issue and citizens' awareness, between
policymakers and citizens, and between the current world and the future we want to achieve. We
must foster a mindset that seeks to address the issues, and this also involves education.
While many emphasize the significance of citizens' climate assemblies as citizen-driven
events, there are also those who see the importance of the roles of the national and local governments.
Even if these assemblies make recommendations, they will be meaningless unless they are translated
into the drafting of legislation and the drawing up of plans for implementation by local governments.
In addition, preparation and coordination are essential for the organization of these assemblies.
Tsukuba City Mayor Tatsuo Igarashi, who organized the city’s citizens' climate assembly, emphasizes
that this is a “cost of democracy,” that we pay in order to create a fully-inclusive civil society.
Nevertheless, he believes that numerous processes will be necessary in order to change national
systems, and that local governments should be the ones taking the initiative.
There are many challenges to be faced in becoming “carbon neutral” by 2050, and there is along road ahead of us. However, at a time when the waning of democracy is a subject of discussion
throughout the world, it will be difficult to make progress in addressing the issue of climate change
without cooperation from the local to the global level. I look forward to seeing the further developmentof citizens’ climate assemblies in Japan.
(Note 1) https://citizensassembly.jp/project/cd_kaken/jp-list(Note 2) https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2021/09/14/in-response-to-climate-change-citizens-inadvanced-economies-are-willing-to- alter-how-they-live-and-work/(Note 3) https://survey.gov-online.go.jp/r02/r02-kikohendo/
Professor Uno is an Executive Vice President of NIRA, and a Professor in The University of Tokyo’s Institute of Social Science.
He holds a Ph.D. in Law from The University of Tokyo’s Graduate Schools for Law and Politics. Professor Uno specializes in
the history of western political thought and political philosophy.

Editor: Reiko Kanda, Maiko Sakaki and Tatsuya Yamaji. This is a translation of a paper originally published in Japanese.
NIRA bears full responsibility for the translation presented here.
Copyright Ⓒ 2024 by Nippon Institute for Research Advancement

3My Vision No.70
2024.2
Expert Opinions

Discussion Involving Citizens Can Lead to Significant
Changes in Society as a Whole
Seeking to achieve the goal of reducing greenhouse gas
emissions to virtually zero by 2050, there has been widespread utilizationof climate assemblies in Europe at the national and municipal levels
since around 2019. Climate assemblies are realized via the holding of“mini-publics,” deliberative meetings between randomly-selected
members of the public. Their purpose is to involve the public, including
previously uninterested segments of the public, in encouraging change insociety as a whole.
In Japan, since our first trial in Sapporo in 2020, municipalitiesindifferent
areas throughout the country have begun to utilize climate
Naoyuki Mikami
assemblies. Participants are randomly selected to create a microcosm ofProfessor, Graduate School ofthe entire community in terms of characteristics such as age, gender, andEnvironmental Studies,area of residence. Thus far, most climate assemblies in Japan have been
Nagoya University
held once a month for about half a day, for a total of about five meetings.
The participants discuss how to promote decarbonization in their city or town, receiving information fromexperts on multiple predetermined themes, including energy, housing, mobility, community development,
and food. The results are compiled in the form of policy recommendations and used by local governments
to address climate change and other issues.
The reason for the high expectations for this method is that the conventional system of social
decision-making has tended to put long-term issues such as climate change on the back-burner. In thecurrent democratic system, such factors as the holding of elections every few years and the influence ofconstituencies and industry lobbies mean that the horizons of politicians responsible for policy-making
tend to be narrowly limited in time and space. Therefore, it is hoped that by having randomly-selectedparticipants engage in deliberation on the basis of unbiased information, the concerns and anxieties of the
public regarding climate change can be brought into the open, a wide range of perspectives on measuresthat should be adopted can be brought together, and this can influence policy decisions.
The key to effective use of climate assemblies is, first, to “set themes” that are appropriate for the
specific area under consideration. Because major sources of CO2 emissions and other factors differ fromregion to region, it is necessary to set themes that are suited to the actual conditions of that area. In
addition, if the climate assembly is held by a municipality, it is important that the administration adopts
the stance that it will be prepared to respond to the recommendations of the assembly and make practicaluse of its outcomes. This does not mean that all the recommendations of a citizens’ assembly must be
accepted as is; it is also important to carefully explain the reasons for not being able to respond immediately
or for giving priority to other ideas. Furthermore, I would like to emphasize the importance of public
participation in the management of climate assemblies. Rather than being the responsibility of the local
government alone, the planning and management of assemblies should be carried out in collaboration withcitizens’ groups and similar organizations.
In Western Europe, national-level climate assemblies are already being held in most countries.
Based on the fact that the method has already been used by municipalities in the country, Japan should
also pursue the possibility of utilizing this method for national discussions toward the realization of adecarbonized society.
Professor Mikami specializes in environmental sociology and science and technology studies. He conducts practical researchon public participation in environmental policy and science and technology, with a particular focus on mini-publics. In 2020,
he organized Japan's first climate assembly in Sapporo as part of a research project he headed. Since then, he has acted as
an advisor for climate assemblies in other areas of Japan. Professor Mikami has held his current position since October 2023,
after serving in positions including Specially-appointed Associate Professor in Hokkaido University’s Communicators inScience and Technology Education Program (CoSTEP) and Associate Professor in the same university’s Institute for the
Advancement of Higher Education. He holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Studies.
Editor: Reiko Kanda, Maiko Sakaki and Tatsuya Yamaji. This is a translation of a paper originally published in Japanese.
NIRA bears full responsibility for the translation presented here.
Copyright Ⓒ 2024 by Nippon Institute for Research Advancement

4My Vision No.70
2024.2
Expert Opinions

Citizen Participation in National Policy Through Deliberative
Discussion Among Citizens
Measures to address climate change are often viewed as thesacrifice of a comfortable and convenient lifestyle for the sake of the earth,
but “putting up with” an eco-friendly lifestyle is not the essence of this issue.
What is needed before making changes in individual lifestyles is to firstchange social rules and frameworks with a sense of urgency. To realize thisgoal, it will be important to make the process of changing social rules adecision-making process that is regarded by the public as legitimate.
Citizens' climate assemblies can be expected to be of great significance in
Seita Emorithis regard.
Because these citizens’ assemblies are attended by members of theProfessor, Institute for
Future Initiatives,
general public who are selected by lottery, the opinions of a wide range of
The University of Tokyo
citizens with varying degrees of interest in the issue of climate change arepresented, from those with a high level of interest to those with a low level.
Participants gain awareness through discussion, but that in itself is not the primary goal of these events.
More important is that citizens who were not selected in the lottery have a feeling of acceptance of theoutcome of the discussions, understanding that they could have been selected and that citizens likethemselves were part of the discussions. Because a sense of the legitimacy of the democratic process isshared, it is easier to increase citizen support for the proposals made, even if they did not participate.
Japanese citizens are becoming increasingly concerned about the issue of climate change, butthere are some noticeable differences between Japan and Europe. One of these is that in Japan, there is
only a vague sense of crisis, typified by the idea that if temperatures continue to increase, our lives will
become difficult; in Europe, by contrast, the problem of climate change is seen as part of a structure ofinjustice between nations and generations. There is, comparatively speaking, a shared understanding that
it is poor countries and people, and future generations, that will be affected.
Another difference is that efforts are not being made at the national level as they are in the UK
and France. In Europe, governments and parliaments are taking the initiative in holding citizens' climate
assemblies in response to strong requests from citizens and environmental groups. France, in particular,
has had some successes, such as proposals for legislation resulting from deliberative discussions at suchassemblies.
In Japan, although there has been an increase in the number of local government-led citizens'climate assemblies, where the head of the administration acts as the leader and residents make theassemblies happen, there has been no progress in establishing public meetings considering national
policies. The only exception is the 2012 discussion regarding the national energy mix after the Great East
Japan Earthquake and the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident, which was seen as a specialcase. In the future, the government should seriously consider initiatives enabling citizens' voices to betaken into consideration in policy discussions.
Professor Emori specializes in climate science, specializing in future projections and risk assessment in relation to global
warming. He is one of the lead authors of the 5th and 6th Assessment Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change. He has worked at the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) since 1997, including as Chief of the
Climate Risk Assessment Section, Center for Global Environmental Research, and as Senior Principal Researcher from 2022.
Since the same year, he has been a professor in The University of Tokyo’s Institute for Future Initiatives (a cross-appointment
with the NIES). He holds a Ph.D. from The University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Professor Emori has
authored numerous books and is actively involved in promoting public understanding of global warming, including writing
the bi-monthly series “For Climate Regeneration” in the magazine SEKAI (“World”) in 2023.

Editor: Reiko Kanda, Maiko Sakaki and Tatsuya Yamaji. This is a translation of a paper originally published in Japanese.
NIRA bears full responsibility for the translation presented here.
Copyright Ⓒ 2024 by Nippon Institute for Research Advancement

5My Vision No.70
2024.2
Expert Opinions

Deliberative Discussion Results in Climate Change Being
Viewed as a “Personal Matter”
I have served as a facilitator at municipal citizen’s climate
assemblies in Sapporo, Kawasaki, Atsugi, Tsukuba, and other cities.
My role is to connect the global theme of climate change with theparticipants' awareness of the issue, elicit their opinions, andfacilitate the meetings. The meetings are held about six times in total,
but in the first one or two sessions, participants tend not to see theissue as a “personal matter.” They have no objection to living an ecofriendly lifestyle within the scope of their ability, but when I tell themthat “The essential measure is to take action to change society,” their
Akane Iwasaki
response is surprise that they might be playing that role. Through a
Assistant Professor, Graduate
carefully designed process of deliberative discussion, even these
School of Agricultural and Life
participants gradually come to see the issue as personal, and begin
Sciences, The University of Tokyo
to look at what they can do to help society and their community. Afterthe assemblies, some participants came to think that while
decarbonization was not an issue in the election, in the next election they would like to see a focus on thecandidates’ stance on climate change.
The issue of climate change is not one that becomes personal merely through the provision of
information. While it is necessary to provide accurate scientific facts, rather than passive acquiescence tocountermeasures, it will be important to encourage a forward-looking perspective, looking towards thecreation of future cities that are comfortable to live in, while protecting the environment and natureenabling us to live prosperous lives. When we change the way we face the situation, it will be easier tocome up with concrete ideas.
The management of citizens’ assemblies differs from municipality to municipality. The first thingthat I have gathered from these differences is the importance of citizen-led management of the assemblies.
In Atsugi City, citizen-based volunteer groups served as the nucleus, making it easier to connect results tofurther activities when the series of assemblies concluded. Ideally, people who contribute to theircommunity should become members of the executive committee and be involved in the management of theassembly, with input from experts. The second thing is the involvement of the administration. It is
desirable that the proposals made at the assembly be accepted and utilized in a meaningful way, rather
than merely floating in the air. The third thing that strikes me is the role of experts. Preliminary design,
including the identification of issues to be discussed and the information to be provided, is extremely
important, and only experts can do this. How the agenda is set looking towards the goal, and the methodof proceeding, make a significant difference to the outcome of the assembly. The involvement of a diverse
group of people while local citizens take the lead will ensure the effectiveness of the assembly.
Although face-to-face meetings have increased since the end of the pandemic, I believe that there
is great potential for online meetings from the perspective of lowering the hurdles to participation by adiverse group of people.
Specializing in environmental philosophy and ethics, Professor Iwasaki is particularly involved in putting into practice a
range of interactive dialogues related to the environment, acting as a mediator between research and the broader society.
She has served as a facilitator for numerous Japanese municipalities in citizen’s climate assemblies. She gained considerable
experience as a science communicator at the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan), building
bridges between experts and the general public. After working at the Social Dialogue and Co-production Office of the National
Institute for Environmental Studies, she became a specially-appointed Assistant Professor in the One Earth Guardians
Development Program of The University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, in 2022, and has held
her current position since 2023. She holds a Ph.D. in sociology.

Editor: Reiko Kanda, Maiko Sakaki and Tatsuya Yamaji. This is a translation of a paper originally published in Japanese.
NIRA bears full responsibility for the translation presented here.
Copyright Ⓒ 2024 by Nippon Institute for Research Advancement

6My Vision No.70
2024.2
Expert Opinions

Citizens’ Climate Assemblies May Achieve a BreakthroughTowards Questioning the Roots of the Social System
The peculiar difficulty of the issue of climate change is that, in
addition to being a challenge of such magnitude as to remake humancivilization, it is a systemic problem in a complex relationship with social,economic, and industrial structures. Particularly in Japan, the large numberof actors involved serves as an excuse to evade the issue, and individual
citizens do not have a sense of personal involvement. The government sees it
as a problem for the U.S. and China, corporations see it as a government
problem, and individual citizens evade the problem, believing that there islittle that they can do about it. I have felt disappointed many times that even
Kimiko Hirata
in the event of a nuclear accident, even when diplomatic pressure is applied,
Executive Director,
in Japan the pendulum swings back to the status quo after the situation has
Climate Integrate
been rectified.
Against this background, I was somewhat skeptical at first about the movement towards theholding of citizens’ climate assemblies by regional administrations, but little by little, I am beginning tohave some hope. If citizen-participatory processes are established and administrations follow through witha certain determination to utilize the results of those processes in the formulation of initiatives, this could
be a way to achieve a “breakthrough” in a variety of issues in Japan from the local level. I feel that thispossibility is beginning to open up in this country.
I believe that citizens’ climate assemblies have significance in bridging “three gulfs”: first, they
will be a means of bridging the gulf between the major social issue of climate change and citizens'awareness of the issue, making it possible for each individual to consider the issue as his or her own.
Although the issue of climate change is one that requires a complete transformation of the social system,
the problem is so large that it is difficult for anyone to feel that they are an involved party. Citizens’ climate
assemblies will allow us to overcome this situation. Second, they bridge the gulf between policymakers andcitizens and open the way for collaboration involving citizen participation. In particular in Japan, thepolitical and decision-making systems that direct policy formation are still fixed on actors from the era of
economic growth. Citizen participation disrupts the existing vertical decision-making structures. Third,
they will create opportunities to explore ways to bridge the gulf between the current fossil fuel-dependentworld and the future we want to achieve.
The challenge in Japan lies in the lack of basic awareness of the issue of climate change among
citizens, businesses, local governments, and the government. In the process of education, the question as
to whether “what was commonsense in the past may not apply to the future, and we need to question oursocial and economic structure” is not asked, and neither adults nor children have the mindset to challengethemselves to do anything more than diligently conserve energy. Unless Japan grasps the issue as astructural systemic challenge and faces it with a sense of urgency, it will not be able to address the problemof questioning the roots of the system. Citizens’ climate assemblies in each of the nation’s regions could
represent a breakthrough in this effort.
Dr. Hirata is the Executive Director of Climate Integrate, an independent climate policy think tank. After working for anenvironmental organization in the U.S., from 1998 to 2021 she worked for the NPO Kiko Network, engaged in research,
analysis, advocacy, and the dissemination of information on international negotiations, and domestic and international
climate change and energy policy. In 2022 she founded Climate Integrate. In collaboration with domestic and international
partners, Climate Integrate supports the efforts of a variety of stakeholders to move towards decarbonization. Dr. Hirata
received the 2021 Goldman Environmental Prize for her efforts to halt plans to build coal-fired power plants. She holds a
Ph.D. in Social Sciences.

Editor: Reiko Kanda, Maiko Sakaki and Tatsuya Yamaji. This is a translation of a paper originally published in Japanese.
NIRA bears full responsibility for the translation presented here.
Copyright Ⓒ 2024 by Nippon Institute for Research Advancement

7

My Vision No.70
2024.2
Expert Opinions

Realizing a “Fully-inclusive” Civil Society Through Deliberative
Discussion, with Local Governments Taking the Lead
Tsukuba City has implemented a variety of environmental
initiatives, such as subsidies for energy conservation in the home, as partof its policies on climate change issues, but I felt that these alone wereinsufficient. Therefore, we launched the “Citizens’ Climate Assembly
Tsukuba,” a mechanism to link the results of deliberative discussions
among citizens to policies.
This is my first experience of a citizens’ climate assembly, and I
believe it is a very effective mechanism. In addressing the issue of climatechange, the most important thing is to encourage citizens to change their
Tatsuo Igarashi
Mayor of Tsukuba City
behavior. Proposals arising from deliberative discussion among citizens
carry a different weight from government-led planning documents, andprovide a strong basis for encouraging change in behavior. The recommendations made by the Citizens’
Climate Assembly will be carefully reviewed in their entirety by the city, and the city will prepare an
implementation plan in the form of a roadmap.
In addition, a diverse range of citizens have participated in the Citizens’ Climate Assembly,
including those who have not in general displayed an interest in policy. Using conventional methods
such as “town meetings,” the voices of the silent majority, those who would not necessarily participate
on their own devices, cannot be heard. By contrast, the Citizens Climate Assembly is highly significant
because in having citizens selected by the drawing of lots participate, it allows for the free expressionof opinions, and for proposals to be heard. In recent years, there has been growing concern that
extreme, discriminatory and exclusionary discussions on the Internet may influence policy. I believethat in order to build a “fully-inclusive” civil society, we must engage in deliberative discussions
through dialogue, rather than being swayed by loud voices on the Internet.
However, preparing the necessary information for participants with different levels ofknowledge and setting an appropriate agenda involves considerable man-hours (i.e., a large numberof processes) in preparation and coordination in advance, and the hurdle for implementation istherefore not low. Although it would be easier to recruit citizen members to attend the meetings ofspecialized councils and conduct community briefings and questionnaire surveys as has been done in
the past, I believe that the organization of citizens’ climate assemblies is, so to speak, a “cost of
democracy” that must be paid in order to create a fully-inclusive civil society.
I believe that citizens’ climate assemblies will spread nationwide in the future. If this happens,
as we do what we can as local governments, we can link the movement to overall changes in the
country. Changing national systems will involve a large number of processes, and a range ofadjustments of interests must also be advanced. We cannot wait for the national government to pushforward with this. Local governments must actively take the lead.
Dr. Igarashi is the mayor of Tsukuba City, in Ibaraki Prefecture. After serving two terms on the Tsukuba City Council, he
was elected to his current position in 2016. He is currently serving his second term as Mayor. He graduated from the
University of Tsukuba’s College of International Studies with a Bachelor's degree in International Studies and took an M.Sc.
degree in public policy from University College London. He completed his graduate studies at the Graduate School of Business
Sciences, Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Tsukuba, taking a Ph.D. in International Political Economy.
Mayor Igarashi announced the “Tsukuba City Zero Carbon City Declaration” in 2022, aiming to realize a decarbonized society,and realized the holding of the “Citizens’ Climate Assembly Tsukuba” in 2023, a citizens’ assembly, participation in which isbased on the drawing of lots. He received the Manifesto Promotion Award for Excellence in the Manifesto Awards, which
recognizes outstanding efforts by politicians. He was also selected as an OECD Champion Mayor by the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development.

Editor: Reiko Kanda, Maiko Sakaki and Tatsuya Yamaji. This is a translation of a paper originally published in Japanese.
NIRA bears full responsibility for the translation presented here.
Copyright Ⓒ 2024 by Nippon Institute for Research Advancement8