Critical discourse analysis on Japan’s carbon neutrality declaration in October 2020: rationale of the government’s decision

Policy texts, discourse and practices, and structural conditions were analyzed using Fairclough’s three-dimensional model of critical discourse analysis. Textual analysis (description) identifies the ‘virtuous cycle of the economy and the environment’ and top – down leadership rhetoric as textual values.

The interpretation stage reveals that these values reflect a dominant discourse of weak ecological modernization, influenced by Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s political motivation to dismantle bureaucratic silos and implement regulatory reforms. Finally, the explanation stage demonstrates that discourses and political practices were underpinned by three interrelated structural conditions, namely, Japan’s centralized kantei-shudo (cabinet-led) governance system, changes in global financial and economic structures, and Japan’s historical energy insecurity.