Japanese Climate Litigation and the Development of Personal Rights

Since climate change was recognised as a global concern, there has been a growing number of climate-related cases around the world. While the development of climate litigation in Japan is often overlooked in the academic literature, Japanese citizens in fact have instituted four lawsuits that all aim to stop the construction and operation of coal-fired power plants, as the use of coal in the power generation sector is primarily responsible for the total emissions of greenhouse gases in Japan. Accordingly, this article aims to introduce the recent climate-related cases and to show how human rights-based concepts are utilized with the intention of incorporating environmental claims. More specifically, the development of the concept of personal rights (Jinkaku-ken, 人格権) is discussed, primarily by examining the arguments made in the tort law-based climate cases.