Japan Faces $6-a-Person Lawsuit Over Climate Change Risks

More than 450 people are suing Japan’s government and seeking damages of 1,000 yen ($6) each, alleging one of the world’s top greenhouse gas emitters isn’t doing enough to combat global warming.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday at the Tokyo District Court, argues the nation’s climate targets aren’t ambitious enough to meet global commitments to limit the Earth’s temperature rise to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.

Japan’s pledges to cut emissions by 60% by 2035 from 2013 levels fall short of what’s required and “threaten our lives,” according to a summary of the complaint from the Climate Justice Litigation Office, a group that helped organize the case.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara declined to comment on the lawsuit when asked during a press briefing Thursday.

“Climate change is an urgent and common challenge for all humanity,” he said. “As for Japan, we submitted new, ambitious greenhouse gas reduction targets in February this year that are consistent with the 1.5C goal of the Paris Agreement. The entire government is actively working together to achieve these targets.”

Searing heat during the nation’s summer saw new temperature records set twice in a week, and strained power grids to health care systems. In June, the government began enforcing tougher rules to protect workers from extreme temperatures, with employers facing fines of as much as 500,000 yen.

The case in Japan follows similar global lawsuits in which groups of individuals have attempted to hold governments or companies to account over climate action. At least 226 new climate cases were brought in 2024, according to a June report from the Grantham Research Institute on Climate.

In August last year, the Constitutional Court of Korea ruled in favor of more then 250 plaintiffs, mostly young people, who mounted cases against South Korea’s government over its climate strategy.

Photograph: Tokyo District Court; photo credit: Toru Hanai/Bloomberg