KAZE, September 2019
Hurrah, Japanese young people, for our common future!

Konoe FUJIMURA
The voting rate of Japan’s national election in this July was an all-time low of48%, which is a clear indication of Japanese people’s distrust of politics. Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe as LDP president declared that his cabinet (or his party) wastrusted, but is it really so? LDP’s absolute share of votes was only 18.9%. Apparently,
they are losing public trust, but they obtained more than half of the seats. Not at allfair! I cannot but agree with a TV show comment that the election this time may
have followed the political rules but it is quite doubtful if it meets the principle ofdemocracy. Democracy today is facing a real crisis all over the world and Japan is not
an exception.
Trying to make a breakthrough in this stagnant situation, the Green AllianceJapan, a group of environmental NPOs that I am co-representing, has beenorganizing a discussion session twice a year with a few officials of the Ministry ofEnvironment Japan because they virtually design policies. This year’s theme was“The role of environmental NPOs and how to expand public support to NPOs”. We
selected this theme to raise questions about the difference in NPO/NGO status in
Japan and Europe. In Japan, most subsidies to NPOs/NGOs are meant to be used forprojects, not for administrative expenses. Therefore, NPOs/NGOs are suffering fromfinancial problems and chronicle staff shortage.
Before the day of the discussion session, we sent a set of questions to theministry participants: “what role do you expect of environmental NPOs/NGOs to playin formulating policies or working with the international community?”, “why theofficial support to NPOs/NGOs has been quite unsatisfactory in Japan?”, etc.
During the session, we did not hear any clear answer to these questions (aswe half expected), but one of the ministry officials expressed their personal views:
one said that the NPO/NGO network is important and their views as a citizen would
be useful for policy-making, and another said that the NPO’s opinion is precious but
their method of building a consensus needs further deliberation.

It was good to know that the ministry officials acknowledge NPOs/NGOs
representing civil society, but it was a pity that they still look suspicious of the valueof NPO/NGO’s participation in policy-making processes. In Europe, environmental
NPOs/NGOs with professional expertise and long experiences in civil society arevalued as a strong and reliable actor for building a real civil society. Unfortunately,
however, Japanese ministry officials have yet to arrive at such understanding of thereal value of NPOs/NGOs.
In the meantime, the Mainichi Shinbun, a major Japanese newspaper,
reported on 8 August that the Cabinet Office is planning to establish a new personnel
rule. If this rule is introduced, those ministry leaders will be promoted forabolishing/reducing existing projects that Cabinet considers unnecessary.
It is astounding! Even now, personnel issues of the national government are
fully controlled by the Cabinet Office and ministry officials tend to read the situation
for their promotion or self-protection. Further pressure on government officials in
the form of personnel rules will only undermine environmental policy making thathave already been heavily suppressed under the economy-first Abe Cabinet.
If this new rule is really installed, government officials will be even morediscouraged from designing drastic environmental measures or collaborating withNPOs/NGOs. I really worry about their demoralization especially when they are
expected to take definite actions toward extreme weather events caused by climatechange attacking various parts of the world.
As we all see, torrential rainfalls, heatwaves, and drought have been
occurring various parts of the world. These climate disasters caused serious
damages to the economy, not to mention our daily lives. IPCC warned against foodshortage due to global warming which is becoming more and more serious,presaging that the prices of grains will rise by as high as 23% by 2050. If thishappens, Japan, whose food self-sufficiency is less than 40%, will soon be starved.
Despite this critical situation, almost no political parties/candidates of the July
Japanese national election raised the issue of climate change. People talked about
the danger of organizing next Olympic Games in boiling hot summer in Tokyo, buteven media do not urge the government to take urgent measures to tackle serious
climate change events.

Under the Abe administration, politicians are all out to control politics
chasing after short-sighted merits for their stakeholders, and government officials
tend to work for their own merits rather than for the Mission as a public servant
making every effort to protect their position. In this desperate situation, can wereally protect a sound natural/social environment and relay it to the next
generation? Who is responsible for the future of this country? After years of growing
distrust of government and politicians, Japanese people seem to be giving up theirexpectations for politics and the government.
Amid the current chaotic political situation, young people in Japan arebeginning to voice their concerns about the future. Inspired by Greta, a 16-year oldSwedish climate activist, Japanese high-school and college students will join theGlobal Climate March scheduled on 20 September. I had a chance to talk with someof those conscious young people and felt that we, adults, should do something forour common future. Supporting these young people would be one of thecontributions that we could do to compensate for what we unconsciously did in thepast. We, adults, should realize our responsibility for what we have done on theenvironment and work hands in hands with the younger generation to take one step
forward for survival. This seems to be the only possible path that we can take forsustainable future.

Filled with a sense of crisis, the Green Alliance Japan decided to voice ourconcern in the form of a demonstration. On 20 September, we will join theClimate March together with our young friends of high-school and college
students.