Japan business lobby to oppose climate target: report

Source: Reuters


TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's biggest business group is set to lobby against greenhouse gas emissions targets pledged by the new ruling party ahead of an international climate conference, a Japanese newspaper said on Thursday.
Business lobby Keidanren is keen to dissuade incoming Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama from referring to a midterm target of 25 percent cuts at a U.N. climate change conference in New York on September 22, the Yomiuri newspaper said.

"It will be taken as a commitment and will put Japan in a disadvantageous position," the paper quoted a senior Keidanren official as saying.

A Keidanren spokesman declined to comment on the report.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-GreenBusiness/idUSTRE58207Z20090903

TOKYO — Fresh from a landslide election win, Japan's next government faces signs of an emerging rift with big business, which fears some of its policies could hinder a recovery in the recession-hit economy.

Premier-in-waiting Yukio Hatoyama has vowed to put the interests of people before those of corporate Japan. In a recent essay he criticised "unrestrained market fundamentalism and financial capitalism that are void of morals."

His Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) has irked major manufacturers with a goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2020.

The ambitious target compares with an eight-percent cut promised by the pro-business Liberal Democratic Party, which was swept from power in a landmark election Sunday after governing Japan almost continuously since 1955.

The head of the top business lobby, Nippon Keidanren, has called on the DPJ to review its emission reduction target, telling Japanese media on Thursday that it may be unrealistic and "a burden to the people."

The lobby's head Fujio Mitarai -- chairman of high-tech giant Canon Inc. -- urged the DPJ to consider the "effects on jobs" of the sweeping plan.

Japanese companies have long argued that tighter emission rules would hurt their ability to compete with global rivals, and the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association has also spoken out against the plan.
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It's almost not even worth reporting it is it?
It's like reporting that Church Groups are against Pornography. Not worth reporting it. It's a given.