Japan's Ambivalent Diplomacy on Climate Change

Japan often pictures itself as an environmental leader. While many examples of Japan's actions against climate change are in line with global climate change norms, others can be in opposition to them. This study, based on first hand interviews with Japanese policy makers and actors from the private and civil society sector, gives an informed perspective on the process through which Japan came to integrate and implement, at the domestic level, the international objective of climate change prevention, pointing out the discrepancies, tensions or synergies that emerged. As the current governance on climate change, and particularly after the Copenhagen conference, tends to reassert the importance of the national level against the global one, the Japanese case can serve as an example of tools and strategies that fully integrate the domestic level