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Preface:

The Kyoto Protocol accepted by Japan in June 2002 targets the reduction of six greenhouse gases
(GHGs): carbon dioxide (CO2); methane (CH4); nitrous oxide (N2O); hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs);
perfluorocarbons (PFCs); and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6). Quantified targets for reductions in emissions
of greenhouse gases have been set for each of the Annex I parties. The target given to Japan for the
first commitment period (five years from 2008 to 2012) is to reduce average emissions of greenhouse
gases by six percent from the base year (1990 for carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, and
1995 for HFCs, PFCs, and sulfur hexafluoride). At the same time, the Annex I parties were required to
improve the accuracy of their emission estimates, and to prepare a national system for the estimation
of anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of the aforementioned greenhouse gases
by one year before the beginning of the commitment period (2007). The GHGs inventories have been
therefore important data for Japan in reporting its achievement of the Kyoto Protocol’s commitment.
In 2006, Japan submitted the Report on Japan’s Assigned Amount pursuant to Article 3, Paragraphs 7
and 8 of the Kyoto Protocol to the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change, and in 2007, the Report was approved by the Compliance Committee under the
Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties (COP/MOP).
Estimation of GHGs emissions has started in Japan since the latter half of the 1980s. Since 1992, with
the cooperation of ministries, the Ministry of the Environment (previously named as the Environment
Agency) has estimated carbon dioxide emissions and has submitted annual reports to the Council of
Ministers for Global Environmental Conservation every year. The Government also publicizes total
emissions of greenhouse gases in Japan.
The GHGs inventory including this report represents the combined knowledge of over 70 experts in a
range of fields from universities, industrial bodies, regional governments, relevant government
departments and agencies, and relevant research institutes, who are members of the Committee for the
Greenhouse Gas Emissions Estimation Methods established in November 1999 and has been often
held since then.
In compiling GHGs inventories, the Greenhouse Gas Inventory Office of Japan (GIO) would like to
acknowledge not just the work of the Committee members in seeking to develop the methodology, but
those experts who provided the latest scientific knowledge, the industrial bodies and government
departments and agencies that provided the data necessary for compiling the inventories. We would
like to express our gratitude to the Climate Change Policy Division of the Global Environment Bureau
of the Ministry of the Environment for their efforts and support to the establishment of GIO in July
2002.