20210427 AI - Japan and Asias green future img

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has trumpeted ambitious climate goals, but some see a need for a more "intense energy transition" by the government. © Illustration by Hiroko Oshima/Source photo by Kyodo

Cars, homes and steel: Japan industries wary of Suga carbon vows

Toyota chief leads warnings of hollowing-out without more clean energy

FRANCESCA REGALADO and ERI SUGIURA, Nikkei staff writers

April 27, 2021 06:00 JST

TOKYO -- On the tenth anniversary of northeastern Japan's catastrophic earthquake on March 11, Akio Toyoda delivered a chilling warning.

Stressing the auto industry's role in restoring the devastated region's economy, the president of Toyota Motor and the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association was blunt: "If things continue as they are now, we won't be able to produce cars in Japan anymore. We need green energy first and foremost."