Japan has put the operating detail of its carbon capture and storage law out for comment. On 2 October 2026 the trade ministry's Agency for Natural Resources and Energy opened two consultations, both closing on 31 October: draft guidelines for running storage projects, jointly with the Environment Ministry, and an amendment to the screening criteria METI applies to permit and approval decisions under the law.
Why now
The parts of the CCS Business Act covering storage and pipeline transport took effect on 22 May 2026, completing its entry into force. The ministry says the criteria need updating as a result. The guidelines explain the obligations in the law and ordinances and say what operators should do, so that projects are run properly and handed over cleanly to JOGMEC, the state energy and metals agency. The guidelines consultation is a voluntary one, not a statutory rulemaking procedure.
Who pays for the long tail
The sharpest commercial point is cost after injection stops. The draft says operators must set aside funds during the injection period, by provisioning or other measures the minister approves, to cover post-injection monitoring, closure work and emergency response. A separate annual levy goes to JOGMEC. It is set so that JOGMEC can fund 30 years of monitoring, emergency measures and upkeep of any wells or structures left in place. The draft adds a risk premium to the estimated total.
The 30-year period is not written into the statute. The guidelines base it on foreign precedent and say it will be reviewed. A storage operator can apply to end its project only after a period of at least ten years from its last injection. The minister can shorten that period if the minister judges the volume injected small enough that storage would become stable within ten years and stay stable.
Monitoring tiers and reporting
Operators must plan monitoring in three tiers: normal, concern and abnormal. Results from normal monitoring are reported without delay, concern-tier results immediately, and abnormal-tier results periodically or on request. Operators must also report on their approved storage plan at least once a year. Plan changes need approval, but cutting injection volumes, or a rise of less than 10% in the estimated post-injection operating costs or in JOGMEC's estimated post-handover management costs, needs only notification.
The guidelines include a model case: a shallow-sea site injecting several million tonnes a year over 25 years from an offshore platform. The draft calls it an example, not a standard. In it, three-dimensional seismic surveys come about every five years, and marine environmental surveys run four times a year for the first five years of injection, twice a year for the next five, then annually for 15 years.
The permit criteria
The amendment to METI's screening criteria rewrites provisions that previously covered test drilling so that they cover storage business permits more broadly. It adds standards for items including storage plan approvals, closure plans, and the levy amount. It also adds grounds for ordering changes to tariffs, such as a storage fee that is clearly excessive or a clearly unreasonable split of construction costs. Both consultations take comments in Japanese through the e-Gov portal, by post or by email.