Critical issues for the future well-being of all nations, such as the environmental sustainability of economic development, can only be managed through joint actions, which leverage scientific research and already available technology to ensure that growth does not come at the expense of the environment.
Japan’s contribution in this direction has, of course, been essential, as it presided over the adoption of the historical Kyoto protocol in 1997. We may also recall the alarm already raised in the early 1970s by the ‘Club of Rome’, with its report, ‘The Limits to Growth’.