rainfall that fell on Mikado, Misato-cho in Miyazaki Prefecture, which was the highest rainfall until then. The total amount of precipitation at the station reached 1,814.5 mm and the precipitation amount in some areas was estimated to be over 2,000 mm based on Radar/Rain Gauge Analyzed Precipitation. The typhoon Talas triggered landslide disasters, submersion, river floods, etc., and thus left 78 people dead and 16 missing in some prefectures such as Wakayama, Nara, and Mie. Furthermore, multiple occurrences of deep-seated landslides $ ^{Note1} $ caused serious damage, and 17 river channel blockages $ ^{Note2} $ were formed due to large-scale slope failures. Among them, 5 places threatened to become serious secondary disasters from the collapse of river channel blockages caused by subsequent rainfall. In addition, Typhoon Roke (the 15th named storm) occurred on September 13 and grew into a very strong typhoon on September 20, with a central pressure of 940 hPa and maximum wind speed of 45 m/second. After the typhoon made land on or around Hamamatsu-city in Shizuoka Prefecture on September 21, it made its way through the Tokai Region, Kanto Region, and then the Tohoku Region while maintaining its strength and causing wind storms and record-breaking heavy rain in a wide area from West Japan to North Japan. Violent winds were observed in various places and maximum wind speed of 30.5 m/second was recorded at Rinkai-cho, Edogawa-ku, Tokyo, which was the all-time highest record since observations began. Moreover, of the observation points with a statistics period of at least 10 years, 36 points set new records for 72-hour maximum precipitation since the observation started, and maximum wind speed records were also set for 20 points. Typhoon Roke left 18 people dead and 1 missing in prefectures such as Miyagi, Shizuoka, and Aichi, and cause residential damage, landslides, floods, and other problems over a wide area from Okinawa to Hokkaido.

## (Difficult journey to a low carbon society)

With regard to reduction of greenhouse gases that cause global warming, the Kyoto Protocol, which defined numeric targets for emission reductions by developed countries and countries with economies in transition were adopted (effective in 2005) in the third session of the Conference of the Parties (COP3) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change held in 1997. In this Protocol, a reduction of at least 5% compared to the base year (1990, in principle) in 5 years from 2008 to 2012 was set as a target for developed countries overall, and a reduction of 6% was set as a target for Japan.

In the 17th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP17) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change held in December 2011 at Durban in South Africa, the “Durban Agreement” was adopted and called for the mandatory greenhouse gas emission reductions defined in the Kyoto Protocol to be continued after 2013 and also defined a new framework with participation of all countries including United States and China in 2020. Although Japan did not secede from the Protocol itself, it was decided that Japan would not take part in the extended reduction obligation, and would continue to address the issue independently, assuming the obligation of reporting the amount of reduction, etc. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism is required to promote energy saving and the use of renewable energy so that Japan can aggressively contribute to the international cooperation in the field of climate change.

On the other hand, Japan’s recent greenhouse gas emissions show the following figures for 2010; +4.2% compared with the previous fiscal year, and -0.3% compared with the base year. If measures concerning absorption and international credit are taken into account, the amount is -10.1% compared with the base year. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism is involved with sectors that account for a majority of the $ CO_{2} $ emissions, including the transportation, residential, and commercial, and other sectors. For the breakdown of $ CO_{2} $ emissions during the same fiscal year, the emissions in the transportation sector were about 232 million tons, showing a declining tendency. But it still accounted for about 20% of the total, showing the second largest emissions after the industry sector. In addition, the emissions in the residential sector and the commercial and other sectors were 172 million tons and 217 million tons, accounting for 14.4% and 18.2% of the total, respectively.