Based on the author’s own experience, this paper reviews how environmental economics and policy studies have been involved in discussions in the councils and study groups of Japan’s Ministry of the Environment and Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and looks ahead to the future role of such studies in the design of carbon pricing systems. Environmental economics and policy studies have produced some research in response to industry concerns about the effectiveness of carbon pricing, carbon leakage and economic impacts. Overall, the various studies conducted by members of the Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies have helped to advance the policy debate. We look forward to the contribution of environmental economics and policy studies to the detailed institutional design of carbon pricing.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the establishment, activities, and impacts of the Task Force for Comprehensive Inspection of Regulations Related to Renewable Energy, etc. (Renewable Energy Task Force), which was established under Japan’s Cabinet Office in November 2020. In a specific case, it was found that the task force advanced regulatory reform by taking advantage of demand from citizen groups, especially in discussions regarding the elimination of location regulations on solar power generation equipment in the agricultural field. Knowledge regarding the influence of such a new organization will contribute to reforming the policymaking process in Japan’s energy sector, and the future activities of this task force are likely to be of interest.

This study statistically reveals the characteristics of farmers in Ibaraki Prefecture who engage in environmentally friendly agriculture, based on individual data from the 2015 Census of Agriculture and Forestry. The results show that there is an inverse U-shaped relationship between the scale of the farm management entity and the probability of engaging in environmentally friendly agriculture, suggesting that the recent policy direction of the agricultural sector as a whole, namely, the expansion of such farms through farmland accumulation, is generally compatible with the spread of environmentally friendly agriculture. The results also indicate that there are differences in the efforts toward environmentally friendly agriculture according to the sales channel for the agricultural products. In order to promote environmentally friendly agriculture, it is necessary to design a system that takes into account farm management strategies and the differences between consumers according to shipping destination.