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The Forest Environment Transfer Tax (FETT), a scheme similar to Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES), was introduced for Japanese forests at the national level in 2019 to address the challenges of climate change and promote management mainly in privately owned forests under the New Forest Management System (NFMS). Given insufficient human and...

Globally, urbanization constitutes one of the major underlying drivers of global ecological degradation. Hence, deurbanization, i.e., demographic shift from urban to distant rural areas in a way that increases quality of life (QoL), can be one of the key pathways to address this global challenge. In this study, we investigated the contribution of...

Although the suburbs of numerous cities worldwide are shrinking, research on how to address suburban decline remains scarce. This paper explores participatory mapping in shrinking suburbs as a tool to articulate knowledge co-creation between local officials and communities to inform planning decisions. The paper argues that participatory planning...

This report examines the feasibility of Japan not only achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, but also making significant reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, so as to make its cumulative emissions as small as possible, thereby contributing to the global goal of limiting the average temperature increase to below 1.5°C compared to the pre...

This chapter provides the most recent policy frameworks for sound material-cycle society (SMCS) and promoting the 3Rs (reduce, reuse, and recycle) as well as circular economy transition in Japan, with some illustrations of the best practices carried out by the private sector and Japanese local governments as outcomes.

The Forest Declaration Assessment is a continual and collaborative process achieved collectively by civil society organizations and researchers. Since 2015, the Forest Declaration Assessment has published annual updates on progress toward global forest goals. The Japanese case study in the 2023 Assessment Report provides a very brief snapshot of...

Nature-based solutions (NbS) are promising measures for protecting, sustainably managing, and restoring ecosystems as well as addressing societal challenges, including climate change mitigation and adaptation. To consider mainstream NbS for use in disaster risk reduction (DRR) infrastructures, the affected residents’ perception and attitude toward...

This report was prepared by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) under the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) project "Analysis of Timber Legality Assurance Systems and Good Practices in China and Viet Nam for Sustainable Timber Trade''. This ITTO project was made possible by funding from the Japanese government...

As decarbonisation of the power sector is essential to achieve Japan’s target of net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050, it becomes crucial to address how the electricity system incorporates short- and long-term variability in the power output via renewable energy. In this paper, we developed six scenarios for 100% renewable energy in...

Coastal social-ecological systems (SES) are essential for the wellbeing of coastal communities and the wider society. However, in many parts of the world coastal SES face rapid change, and ultimately degradation. In this paper we unravel the mechanisms and implications of change in coastal SESmobilising multiple sources of knowledge, including...