While Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda on Monday presented his plan to introduce emissions trading on a trial basis as early as autumn, Japanese businesses remain skeptical about whether the cap-and-trade system is the best way to slash greenhouse gas emissions.
The Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren), the nation's biggest business lobby, claims emissions trading will increase global carbon dioxide emissions if it is not introduced globally.
"Because of the restrictions on cutting emissions, major companies will shift their production more overseas, where environmental regulations are more lax than in Japan," said a Keidanren official who asked not to be named. "It will instead increase emissions worldwide."