With Japan facing the prospect of a new prime minister later next month, the successor to Kishida Fumio will face a barrage of social and economic issues. The new PM will also play a major role in Japan’s energy planning with a number of key policy documents due inside the next six to seven months.

Kishida’s successor will preside over:

• Japan’s participation in the latest United Nations Climate Change Conference, the COP29 in Azerbaijan (November); 
• Formation of a new roadmap that will seek to align industrial and clean energy developments (GX 2.0) (year-end);
• Update to the strategic Basic Energy Policy, which will outline focus areas through 2035 (latest, March 2025); 
• Revision of Japan’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC), which will set new and stricter targets on emission reductions (expected Feb or March 2025). 

There are many other sector-specific developments that may be influenced by a new face in the PM’s office, but just as Kishida continued many of the policies of his predecessor, while rebranding the net-zero commitments as ‘GX’ (green transformation), the next PM is unlikely to significantly alter course in the near future.

To get a sense of the state of affairs that Kishida’s successor will inherit, here is an outline of the status of the energy landscape in Japan today. The slides are based on developments covered in the Japan NRG Weekly reports and a presentation delivered to the American Chamber of Commerce, Japan (ACCJ) last month.