Japan's Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry opened public comment on 12 November on two linked draft notices. Together they would write forest-sink credits into the rules companies use to report greenhouse gas emissions. Comments are due by 11 December 2026, the notices are due to be issued in January 2027, and the changes would apply from 1 April 2027.
What the drafts change
The first draft amends the notice that defines domestic certified emission reductions. It would add "own efforts to conserve and enhance greenhouse gas absorption, limited to forest development and conservation" to the definition of the J-Credit scheme, the domestic system that certifies emission reductions and absorption for climate action.
The second draft amends the calculation method notice used for reporting. It would redefine "emissions adjustment invalidation" as making a domestic certified reduction non-transferable. The purpose would be to treat another party's reduction efforts, and the company's own forest conservation, as counting toward its own emissions-cutting effort.
Why the ministries say they are acting
Under Article 26(1) of the Act on Promotion of Global Warming Countermeasures, designated emitters report to the minister responsible for their industry. Reports on energy-origin carbon dioxide are calculated with the domestic certified reductions the emitter has acquired taken into account.
The drafts follow a study group on calculation methods that met from September 2023 to June 2025 and discussed how forest absorption is treated. It concluded that forest-sink credits from a company's own absorption work should be usable to adjust its own adjusted emissions.
Two earlier measures are already in place. A 2026 amendment to the reporting order classed a company's own absorption efforts as domestic certified reductions. A March 2026 notice on adjusting adjusted emissions allows forest-sink credits of this kind to be used for that purpose. The calculation method draft says that notice already treats making such credits non-transferable as invalidation, and the new draft would align the reporting method with it.
How to comment
The comment period runs from 12 November to 11 December 2026, with submissions required to arrive by the last day. Comments must be in Japanese and go through the e-Gov portal or by post to the Ministry of the Environment's decarbonization infrastructure office. Phone submissions are not accepted. The ministries plan to publish a summary of comments and their responses after the period closes.
The overview does not say how many emitters or how many credits the change would affect. Companies that report under the system, and anyone holding or developing forest-sink J-Credits, have until 11 December to say whether the definitions work for them.