October 14, 2022

Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Representatives Kasai Akira and JCP member of the House of Councilors Iwabuchi Tomo on October 12 met with Greenpeace Japan representatives in response to a request by the organization.

Greenpeace Japan demands that measures to promote clean-energy vehicles be taken in haste in order to tackle climate change.

Greenpeace representatives in the meeting said that Japan's automobile industry in its efforts to popularize electric-powered vehicles (EV) to combat climate change lags far behind the rest of the world. They called on the JCP lawmakers to work to expand the government subsidy program for the introduction of clean-energy vehicles as it will contribute to the growth of the domestic EV market.

Iwabuchi agreed that Japan runs counter to the world trend, and said that the Japanese car industry is actually conducting a negative campaign that e-cars will pose a threat to autoworkers' jobs.

Kasai pointed out that the Kishida government pressed by Toyota Motor decided to allow hybrid vehicles to be included in the EV category. Kasai said that in order to cope with the effects of climate change, companies should not give highest priority to pursuing only immediate profits. He stressed that "Just Transition" is important under which both automakers and governments should be responsible for subcontractors as well as for the maintenance and creation of jobs.