The Environment Ministry hopes to introduce a temporary tax on coal, gasoline and other fossil fuels in fiscal 2005 in an effort to reduce the nation's greenhouse gas emissions, ministry sources said Saturday.
The tax would end in fiscal 2012.
Under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, Japan is required to cut greenhouse emissions by 6 percent from 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012.
The ministry originally intended to make the tax permanent, but the business community has been lobbying against the idea and the Finance Ministry opposes designing a tax for a specific purpose.
The ministry is considering a 3,000 yen tax per 1 ton of carbon in coal or other fossil fuel consumed by industry.
That would work out to about 2 yen per liter of gasoline.
The ministry expects the tax to bring in about 1 trillion yen annually. The revenue would fund a special-account budget for programs aimed at meeting Kyoto Protocol limits.
The ministry believes it is necessary to tax fossil fuels since emissions in fiscal 2000 increased 8 percent over their 1990 level.
The ministry's Central Environment Council is currently studying the matter and intends to come up with a draft plan in the summer.