39

Recent Progress in Local Governmental Planning for Climate
Change Adaptation in Japan: A Case of Climate Change
Adaptation in Saitama Prefecture
Masayuki HARA1,2* and Tomohide SHIMADA1
1
Center for Environmental Science in Saitama,914, Kamitanadare, Kazo, Saitama, 347-0115, Japan
2
Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology,
3173-25, Showa-machi, Kanazawaku, Yokohama, Kanagawa, 236-0001, Japan*email: hara.masayuki@pref.saitama.lg.jp

Abstract
The surface air temperature in Japan continues to rise, as can be seen from observations beginning in
the 1890s. This temperature rise has been caused not only by urbanization but is also greatly affected byclimate change. Under these circumstances, efforts toward adaptation to climate change have recently begun
in Japan among local governments. Since the national climate change adaptation plan was issued in 2015,
formulation of adaptation plans by local governments has steadily progressed. This is partly attributable tosupport from national projects for the development of local government adaptation plans, availability of aclimate change adaptation information platform launched by the Ministry of the Environment, and easieraccess to climate change adaptation information. In this paper, we survey and review the present state ofclimate change adaptation planning in local governments in Japan. We also describe the current progress
toward climate change adaptation in Saitama Prefecture as an example of climate change adaptation planningby a local government.
Key words: climate change adaptation, local government, thermal environment

1. Introduction
It has been pointed out that climate change due toanthropogenic forcing already affects nature and humansociety, and there is a high possibility that serious,
widespread irreversible effects will occur if the degreeof global warming increases in the future (IPCC, 2013).
Even if future greenhouse gas emissions are reduced tozero, the globally-averaged surface air temperature will
rise, and the risk of climate change is expected toincrease toward the end of the 21st century.
The Japan Meteorological Agency has been conducting
more detailed future climate forecasts for the Japaneseregion (Japan Meteorological Agency, 2013 & 2017).
They postulated the Representative Concentration Path
(hereafter, RCP) 4.5 scenario in Global Warming
Prediction Information, Volume 8, and the RCP 8.5
scenario in Volume 9. The temperature increase in theregion around Japan is predicted to be 2.5° C– 3.5° C
under the RCP 4.5 scenario and 3.3°C–4.9°C under the
RCP 8.5 scenario. It is predicted that the number of days
with hot weather, when the daily maximum surface airtemperature exceeds 35 °C, will be much higher than at
Global Environmental Research
21/2017: 039–046
printed in Japan

present.
In the Paris Agreement signed at the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change, 2015 (COP21), moves have been made to restrict the global averagetemperature increase to less than +1.5°C or +2.0°C in
the future as compared with the preindustrial climate. It
is difficult to predict the future temperature increase
because there is great uncertainty not only in climate
prediction but also in the prediction of socioeconomic
and technological innovation. For this reason, in order toreduce the impact of climate change, we should plan not
only “mitigation,” to control greenhouse gas emissions,but also “adaptation” to the effects that have alreadybecome apparent and the unavoidable effects in the nearand distant future.
Observation, surveillance, prediction / evaluation,
investigation, etc., of climate change and its impacts areunderway around the world. Particularly in recent years,
adaptation measures have progressed remarkably in Japan.
In 2015, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries(2015) and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport
and Tourism (2015) announced adaptation plans. Based onthese plans and research results on recent adaptations, the©2017 AIRIES40

M. HARA and T. SHIMADA

Central Environment Council evaluated the impact ofclimate change with the participation of experts from awide range of fields at the Central Environment Council
for the government’s adaptation plan formulation. In
November 2015, the government’s first adaptation plan for
the impacts of climate change as adopted by Cabinet
decision (Government of Japan, 2015).
The National Plan for Adaptation to the Impacts of
Climate Change explains that one of the basic strategies
is to promote regional adaptation: cooperation between
the national agency and local governments through thepromotion of climate change impact assessments,
adaptation planning, and capacity building within local
governments. The scale and range of vulnerability due
to climate change depend greatly on regional
characteristics such as climatic, geographical and social
conditions in the affected area. In addition, it isimportant for local governments to develop their own
local communities and societies based on regional
characteristics in order to adapt to future climate change.
Therefore, each local government should play an activerole in tackling climate change adaptation, because
adaptation strategies should depend on the locality.

2. Adaptation Planning in Local Governments in
Japan
Global warming strategies of local governments,
especially at the prefectural and designated city level,
are mostly based on mitigation. Each local government
has its own action plan for global warming mitigation(Ministry of the Environment, 2017a) and is executing
its own action plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
After the Paris Agreement in 2016 (UNFCC, 2016),
climate change adaptation on a local scale became oneof the main issues in the environmental divisions oflocal governments, even in Japan. Therefore, some local
governments have recently made their own action plansfor climate change adaptation.
Some national projects to support creation of climatechange adaptation plans by local governments have beenplanned and implemented since 2010 in Japan. Table 1
gives a list of past and current national projects related toclimate change adaptation planning by local
governments. Twenty-one prefectures and five designatedcities have been supported by those national projects
since 2010.
Under two national projects, the Comprehensive
Study on Impact Assessment and Adaptation for Climate
Change, S-8, of the Environment Research andTechnology Development Fund (Ministry of theEnvironment) and the Research Program on Climate
Change Adaptation (RECCA) (Ministry of Education,
Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT))
implemented from 2010 to 2014, national research
institutes and universities share information with local
governments partaking in the projects, and work together
to create climate change adaptation plans for local
governments. The Support Project for Impact
Assessments and Adaptation Planning for Climate
Change (Ministry of the Environment, 2017b), which
was executed from 2015 to 2016, provided information
about climate change adaptation plans in other local
governments in Japan and other countries. Additionally,
the Social Implementation Program on Climate Change
Adaptation Technology (MEXT), an ongoing project,provides information on climate change adaptation.
The SI-CAT project is targeting some local
governments, called “Model Municipalities,” andattempting to apply advanced technology and information
to implement a climate change adaptation strategy. The
project is also examining how to use advanced technology
and information in local governments at the prefecturelevel and making guidelines to establish a climate change
adaptation plan.
Table 2 shows the status of climate change adaptation
plan-making in prefecture-level local governments as of
May 2017. Seven prefectures and one designated city had
established their own climate change adaptation plans,and 30 prefectures and 11 designated cities had added a
climate change adaptation strategy to their climatechange mitigation plans, environmental action plans orTable 1 National projects supporting climate change adaptation planning in local governments.
Name of project

PeriodMunicipalities involved in the project

Comprehensive Study on Impact Assessment and
Adaptation for Climate Change, S-8, The Environment
Research and Technology Development Fund (Ministryof the Environment)

FY2010－2014

Prefectures: Saitama Pref., Tokyo Met., Nagano Pref.

Research Program on Climate Change Adaptation(RECCA) (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports,
Science and Technology)

FY2010－2014

Prefectures: Aomori Pref. Saitama Pref., Tokyo Met., Toyama
Pref., Fukui Pref., Kochi Pref.,Designated cities: Nagoya City, Yokohama City
Core city: Kochi City
City: Tajimi City

Social implementation Program on Climate Change
Adaptation Technology (Ministry of Education,
Culture, Sports, Science and Technology)

FY2015－2019

Prefectures: Ibaraki Pref., Saitama Pref., Nagano Pref., Gifu Pref.,Tottori Pref., Kagawa Pref., Kochi Pref., Tokushima Pref., Ehime
Pref., Saga Pref.
Designated city: Osaka CityThe Support Project for Impact Assessments andAdaptation Planning for Climate Change (Ministry of
the Environment)

FY2015－2016

Prefectures: Fukushima Pref., Saitama Pref., Kanagawa Pref., Mie
Pref., Shiga Pref., Hyogo Pref., Ehime Pref., Nagasaki Pref.,Kumamoto Pref. Designated cities: Sendai City, Kawasaki City

Recent Progress in Local Governmental Planning for Climate Change Adaptation in Japan

41

Table 2 D
 istribution of local public entities (prefectures and designated cites) that had established an adaptation strategy as of May 2017.
Red letters indicate local governments supported by the national projects.
Method of establishing plan

Municipalities

Establishing their own climate Prefectures: Saitama Pref., Fukushima Pref., Mie Pref., Shiga Pref., Hyogo Pref., Tokushima Pref.,change adaptation plans
Kagawa Pref.
Designated city: Kawasaki City
Adding climate change adaptation Prefectures: Iwate Pref., Akita Pref., Yamagata Pref., Ibaraki Pref., Tochigi Pref., Gunma Pref.,strategies to public documents Chiba Pref., Tokyo Met., Kanagawa Pref., Toyama Pref., Fukui Pref., Yamanashi Pref., Nagano(Global warming strategy action Pref., Gifu Pref., Shizuoka Pref., Shiga Pref., Kyoto Pref., Osaka Pref., Hyogo Pref., Nara Pref.,plan, environmental planning)
Wakayama Pref., Tottori Pref., Shimane Pref., Hiroshima Pref., Ehime Pref., Saga Pref., Nagasaki
Pref., Kumamoto Pref., Oita Pref., Okinawa Pref.
Designated cities: Sendai City, Chiba City, Yokohama City, Sagamihara City, Shizuoka City, Kobe
City, Hiroshima City, Fukuoka City, Kitakyushu City, Kumamoto City, Miyazaki City
Table 3 H
 istory of climate change adaptation in Saitama Prefecture.
Year

Events2008

・“Impact assessment of the global warming in Saitama Prefecture” published.

2009

・“Stop Global Warming Saitama Navigation 2050 (Saitama Prefecture, 2009a) ”, the Global warming strategy action planin Saitama Prefecture, published and added climate change adaptation information into.
・The Saitama Prefecture Ordinance on the Promotion of Global Warming Countermeasures effected. Climate change
adaptation is described in the ordinance.

2010－2014 ・Involved in Comprehensive Study on Impact Assessment and Adaptation for Climate Change, S-8 (Ministry of Environment) .
2012

・Committee on the global warming adaptation promotion in Saitama Prefecture established.
・The 4th environmental planning in Saitama Prefecture revised and climate change adaptation information added.
・“Council on the Global warming adaptation in agriculture” held with Department of Agriculture and Forestry andDepartment of Environment.

2015－2016 ・Involved in the Support Project for Impact Assessments and Adaptation Planning for Climate Change (Ministry ofEnvironment).
2015

・The Global warming strategy action plan in Saitama Prefecture revised and climate change adaptation information added detailed(Saitama Prefecture, 2011).
・Climate change adaptation plan in Saitama Prefecture published.

2015.12－2019

・Involved in Social implementation Program on Climate Change Adaptation Technology (Ministry of Education, Culture,
Sports, Science and Technology) as a Model Municipality.

environmental white papers. Seventy-nine percent ofprefectures (37/47) and 60% of designated cities (12/20)
had described their approach to climate change
adaptation in their official documents. Among local
governments that were supported by the national projects
mentioned above, over 90% of prefectures (19/21) and
100% of designated cities (3/3) had described their own
plans in official documents. This shows that the national
projects have strongly supported climate change
adaptation planning by local governments.
The climate change adaptation platform (A-Plat) built
by Japan’s Ministry of the Environment in 2016 (Ministryof the Environment, 2017c) makes it easier for local
governments to access integrated and comprehensive
information about climate change adaptation. A-Plat is an
important tool for local governments in considering how
to plan for climate change adaptation.

3. History of Climate Change Adaptation
Planning in Saitama Prefecture
Saitama Prefecture established a climate change
adaptation plan in 2016. The prefecture has been
receiving assistance from the national projects and isproceeding earlier than other local governments toreflect climate change adaptation in its prefectural
climate change adaptation plan.
Table 3 lists events in the history of efforts toward
climate change adaptation in Saitama Prefecture. In
2008, an impact assessment of global warming in
Saitama Prefecture was published. Information wasadded on climate change adaptation to Saitama
Prefecture’s mitigation action plan in 2009 (Saitama
Prefecture, 2009a). In 2012, a committee was set up on
global warming adaptation promotion in Saitama
Prefecture, which has shared climate change information
since then among all divisions in the prefectural
government. In 2016, a climate change adaptation planfor Saitama Prefecture was established and published.
Impact assessments are given, and current public
policies and plans for each sector such as agriculture,
forestry, fisheries, water resources, ecology, natural
hazards, human health and urban environments aredescribed in the plan. There are four issues (paddy rice,
floods, heat stroke, and thermal environment) ofparticularly high concern that are listed as pioneering
subjects in the prefecture.
Figure 1 outlines the management process of Saitama

42

M. HARA and T. SHIMADA（℃）

Fig. 1 Flow chart of Saitama Prefecture’s climate change
adaptation strategy.

Fig. 2 SAT time series at Kumagaya Station, Japan Meteorological
Agency.

Prefecture’s climate change adaptation plan. Saitama
Prefecture publishes, manages, executes, verifies andrevises its climate change adaptation plan following aprocess described in Shimada et al., 2016, which isbased on “adaptive management” as suggested in Sirai
et al., 2017.

Department of the Environment compiled and analyzed
many kinds of surface air temperature data, such as theAutomated Meteorological Data Acquisition System(AMeDAS) established by the Japan Meteorological
Agency and air pollution monitoring stations managed
by Saitama Prefecture. The document shows long-term
trends, seasonal variations, land use/ land cover effects
and estimated anthropogenic heat, revealing the main
factors in the heat island effect. The impact assessmentof global warming in Saitama Prefecture, published in
2008, reported that the summertime thermal environment
was getting worse in urban areas. Stop Global Warming
Saitama Navigation 2050, published in February 2009
(Saitama Prefecture, 2009a), is a mitigation action plan,but it also includes an adaptation policy, including
countermeasures to the heat island effect andsummertime thermal environment. A guideline for heatisland countermeasures in Saitama Prefecture was also
published in 2009 (Saitama Prefecture, 2009b) and the
document describes specific plans to implement effective
measures against the heat island effect.
Stop Global Warming Saitama Navigation 2050 was
revised in 2015 (Saitama Prefecture, 2015). The document
includes not only heat island countermeasures but also acomprehensive policy for climate change adaptation in
Saitama Prefecture. The Department of Environment,
Saitama Prefectural Government also started a model
residential area project for advanced measures against theheat island effect to mitigate the heat island effect thatyear.
As mentioned in the previous section, the recent SAT
rise in Saitama Prefecture was caused not only by global
warming but also by enhancement of the urban heat island
due to urbanization. Figure 4 shows the urban fraction of
the Tokyo metropolitan area in 1976 and 2009 and thedifference between them, estimated for a three-kilometer
grid. We cannot find any differences in the center ofTokyo, because the urban fraction was already saturated
by 1976, but we can see urban fraction trends sprawling
into western Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama and Chiba.
Thus, the summertime thermal environment in
Saitama Prefecture is getting worse. Figure 5 shows
mortalities from heat stroke in Saitama Prefecture. After

4. Strategy for Improving the Thermal
Environment in Saitama Prefecture
The Tokyo Metropolitan area (dominating thesouthern part of the Kanto district) is known as one of
the hottest places in summer in Japan. The area contains
more than 38 million people and is the world’s largest
megalopolis. The amplitude of diurnal variation of thesurface air temperature (SAT) is especially large in
Saitama Prefecture (just north of Tokyo), where the daily
maximum SAT sometimes reaches 40 ºC.
Figure 2 shows the annual mean SAT at the
Kumagaya Meteorological Observatory. The trend from
1897 to 2016 has been a rise of 2.07°C /century. This
trend is relatively larger than in the rural region because
it contains not only the impact of global warming but
also that of the urban heat island effect.
Figure 3 shows histograms of the daily maximum
and minimum SATs at the Kumagaya MeteorologicalObservatory. Both histograms show a shift to the warmerside from the 1980s to 2007-2016. The number of days
during which the maximum SAT exceeded 35ºC
increased rapidly, from 73 days in the 1980s to 199 days
from 2007 to 2016. The number of the days during
which the minimum SAT exceeded 25ºC from 2007 to2016 was 3.79 times of the number in the 1980s.
Thus, in the past decade, the summer heat
environment in Japan has grown worse, and the numberof emergency transportations due to heat stroke has
rapidly increased. Therefore, people are concerned about
the summertime thermal environment in Saitama, andthe prefectural government has established various
measures for adaptation to a hotter environment.
Saitama Prefecture established “Heat island report in
Saitama Prefecture” on its heat island effect in March
2006 (Saitama Prefecture, 2007). The Saitama Prefectural

Recent Progress in Local Governmental Planning for Climate Change Adaptation in Japan

43

Fig. 3 Histogram of daily maximum (left) and minimum (right) SAT at Kumagaya Station. Orange bars indicate histogram from 1980 to
1989, blue bars indicate histogram from 2007 to 2016.

(a)Urban fraction in 2009(b)Urban fraction in 1976(c)difference between (b) and (a)Fig. 4 Urban fraction of Tokyo metropolitan area. The urban fraction is calculated from land utilization segment mesh data obtained
through a national land numerical information downloading service in 3-km grid boxes.

Fig. 5 Mortalities due to heat stroke in Saitama Prefecture.
(Population Census, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare)Fig. 6 Population time series in Saitama Prefecture.
(Population data were provided by Statistics Division,
Department of General Affairs, Saitama Prefecture.)

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M. HARA and T. SHIMADA

2000, casualties began increasing, and in 2010, thehottest summer in recent decades, they exceeded 120.
Mortalities from heat stroke are much higher than thosefrom other natural hazards such as floods, snow disasters
or landslides in Saitama Prefecture.
The population of Saitama Prefecture is still
increasing as of January 2017 (Fig.6), though populations
in most prefectures are decreasing. Casualties fromheat stroke strongly depend on age. The population’s
average age is rising drastically: in 2000, 12.8% of
the population was over 65 years old; in 2017, thatfigure had increased to 25%.

5. Example: Local-scale Adaptation in Saitama
Prefecture
In this section, we describe one example of Saitama
Prefecture’s advanced climate change adaptation
measures. To reduce the impact of future heat waves insummertime, the Saitama Prefectural Government isintroducing some effective measures against heat at the
Kumagaya Sports and Culture Park, where major rugby
and football matches often take place.
MEXT launched the Social Implementation Programon Climate Change Adaptation Technology (SI-CAT) in
2015, the goal of which has been social implementationof climate change adaptation on a local government
scale. In the project, national research institutes anduniversities provide their advanced adaptation
information and technology to local governments.
Saitama Prefecture is one of the “Model Municipalities”
of SI-CAT. We established a working group for thermal
environment adaptation, consisting of the Japan Agency
for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC),
the University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki University, Rissho
University and the Center for Environmental Science in
Saitama, and performed in situ observations and finescale numerical simulations.
In August 2016, we performed a set of in situ
observations to evaluate adaptation measuresquantitatively, to verify numerical simulations and to
spread information to citizens and prefectural officers on
Saitama Prefecture’s climate change adaptation strategy.
Figure 7 shows a map of the Kumagaya Sports andCulture Park. The numbers show the locations of
installed observation instruments.
The observations were made on August 9, 10, and19, 2016. The weather was clear and hot on theobservation target days. To share the methodology andinformation from the thermal environment observations
with scientists and policy makers, people from several
sectors such as national research institutes, universities
and local governments took part in the observations. The
daily maximum SAT exceeded 33ºC on all the observed
days. The highest temperature, 36.9ºC, was observed at
the Kumagaya Meteorological Observatory on August 9.
The Kumagaya Sports and Culture Park is located at139.4040 degrees east and 36.1669 degrees north,
3.5 kilometers north of Kumagaya Station on the JR Takasaki

Line. The park area is about 100 ha, the longitudinal size is
2 kilometers, and the latitudinal size is 3 kilometers.
The park contains the “Sainokuni Kumagaya Dome”(a multipurpose dome), three rugby courts and twoathletic tracks.
Figure 7 shows the observation locations. The P1 site
was located at the center of a grass-covered field. We set
that point as a super site and installed an automatedweather station there that could measure air temperature,humidity, pressure, black bulb temperature and threedimensional supersonic wind speed. We also installed an
aspiration psychrometer (Assmann type) and aradiometer that could observe upward and downward,
longwave and shortwave, and four radiation
components. The situation was ideal for generalmeteorological observation. We also took thermography,
temperature and pressure observations in the lower
boundary layer using a drone and radiosonde. Figure7(b) shows the P1 observation site, (c) shows diurnal
variations in SATs in the park, and (d) provides athermographic and visible image. Such efforts areimportant not only for improving numerical models byusing observational data but also for educating theprefectural government about the impact of climatechange.

6. Summary/Discussion
As of 2017, some advanced local governments had
already published their own climate change adaptationplans. National projects, which support creation ofclimate change adaptation plans by local governments,
are very effective, and most of the local governments
supported by these could form their own climate change
adaptation plans. The national projects play a crucialrole in propagating local government plans for climatechange adaptation. Risks due to climate change andfactors that increase climate change vulnerability dependon geographical and social conditions. Climate change
adaptation plans should differ for each local government.
Climate change mitigation by local governments is
mandated by law (Act on Promotion of Global WarmingCountermeasures) in Japan, but as of 2017, adaptation
has not been mandated by any laws, so there is lessmotivation to make climate change adaptation plans.
As mentioned in the Introduction, most local
governments supported by the national projects could
make their own adaptation plans. A-Plat is a helpful tool
for local governments for making climate change
adaptation plans. It is important to maintain, add andupdate data to facilitate climate change adaptation more
widely.
For local governments to achieve the next stage ofclimate change adaptation, support for those unable to
make their own adaptation plans will be essential.

Acknowledgments
This paper is supported by the Social Implementation

Recent Progress in Local Governmental Planning for Climate Change Adaptation in Japan

45

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Fig. 7 Example of a thermal environment observation at the Kumagaya Sports and Culture Park. (a) map of observation sites (map data arefrom http://openstreetmap.org), (b) picture of one observation site, (c) our observed SATs and data from the Kumagaya MeteorologicalObservatory, Japan Meteorological Agency, located about 2 km southwest of the park, and (d) visible and infrared images ofobservation site P2.

46

M. HARA and T. SHIMADA

Program on Climate Change Adaptation Technology (SICAT), MEXT. Observations of the thermal environment
at the Kumagaya Sports and Culture Park were
supported by members of the Thermal Environment
Working Group of SI-CAT, MEXT.

UNFCC (2015) The Paris Agreement. < http: / / unfccc.int/ files/
essential_background/convention/application/pdf/english_paris_
agreement.pdf> (accessed 30 May 2017)

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Masayuki HARA
Masayuki Hara, Ph.D., is a researcher at the Center
for Environmental Science in Saitama (CESS), anda visiting scientist at the Japan Agency for MarineEarth Science and Technology. He received his
Ph.D. from the University of Tsukuba Institute ofLife and Environmental Science in 2014. He has
been a research scientist at the Japan Agency for
Marine-Earth Science and Technology (2004–2014). His research fields are
local climatology and meteorology, and their utilization in climate change
mitigation and adaptation planning.

Tomohide SHIMADA
Tomohide Shimada is assistant director of theEnvironment Department at the Center for
Environmental Science in Saitama (CESS). He is
conducting research into adaptation for global
warming in the region.

(Received 12 June 2017, Accepted 28 August 2017)