Japan is committed in principle to addressing global climate change and to bringing Japanese lifestyles, economy, and policies in line with the requirements of environmental sustainability. With the signing of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, the country became a global exemplar of efforts to control CO2 emissions. Subsequently, successive national governments have attempted, with varying degrees of success, to mobilize government, business and the citizenry in the interests of environmental protection. With a growing sense of crisis, tied to the reality of rapid climate change, the debate over global energy supplies and the conflicting imperatives of economic growth and environmental sustainability, the question of how to align national policy with ecological stewardship has become ever more essential. Japan's effort commenced with the now- standard approaches to reducing consumption, reusing materials and recycling products, producing some results but falling far behind goals and aspirations. This was followed by efforts to capitalize on the promise of science and technology-driven change. While national policy in Japan as elsewhere lagged behind political rhetoric, community level initiatives have been more effective in advancing the cause of environmental sustainability. Policies adopted and implemented in Osaka and Kitakyushu, two cities formerly synonymous with the environmental disasters of Japan's early industrial economy, illustrate the constructive potential of local solutions in addressing a global challenge, but also the structural obstacles to success.

German sociologist Ulrich Beck writes that Japan has become part of the ‘World Risk Society’ as a result of the 2011 nuclear accident in Fukushima. By World Risk Society he means a society threatened by such things as nuclear accidents, climate change, and the global financial crisis, presenting a catastrophic risk beyond geographical, temporal, national and social boundaries. According to Beck, such risk is an unfortunate by-product of modernity, and poses entirely new challenges to our existing institutions, which attempt to control it using current, known means. As Gavan McCormack points out, ‘Japan, as one of the most successful capitalist countries in history, represents in concentrated form problems facing contemporary industrial civilization as a whole’. The nuclear, social, and institutional predicaments it now faces epitomise the negative consequences of intensive modernisation.