Local government initiatives
Local governments across Japan are implementing various innovative initiatives to fulfill their roles under the Adaptation Act. This section highlights some of these initiatives.
Formulation of local climate change adaptation plans
Local governments are currently formulating local climate change adaptation plans tailored to the circumstances of their local area.
As of July 2025, twenty ordinance-designated cities (cities with a population of 500,000 or larger) and 401 other municipalities along with all 47 prefectures have drawn up local climate change adaptation plans, making for a total of 468 plans. Many of the remaining municipalities are in the process of formulating their plans. The Center for Climate Change Adaptation (CCCA) manages and publishes a list of currently formulated local climate change adaptation plans on A-PLAT.
Example: Toyota City's local climate change adaptation plan and its formulation
Toyota City in Aichi Prefecture decided to formulate its local climate change adaptation plan when it declared itself a zero-carbon city in 2019.
As a preliminary step, it started holding adaptation seminars and workshops for its personnel once a year for three years from 2018 to share ideas, boosting their awareness of the issues to about 40%.
In 2019, the city also conducted a heat survey, and in 2020, hearings within its departments and with businesses and other relevant organizations in the city, and workshops to canvas the opinions of citizens.
Toyota employed forward-looking initiatives to formulate its plan, for example by using impact chain methodology to organize findings from these hearings, and creating a Climate Change Risks and Opportunities Circle diagram to visualize and drive both mitigation and adaptation measures.
Establishment of Local Climate Change Adaptation Centers
In addition to formulating local climate change adaptation plans tailored to the circumstances of their local area, local governments are also establishing Local Climate Change Adaptation Centers (LCCACs). As of July 2025, three ordinance-designated cities and 20 municipalities along with 46 prefectures had established LCCACs, making for a total of 69 centers. LCCACs may be operated by local governments (or their environmental research institutes), universities, or other organizations within a specific local area depending on the circumstances of each region.
Example: Establishment of an LCCAC through collaboration between a municipality (Toda City) and prefecture (Saitama)
A notable example of LCCAC establishment is the way Saitama Prefecture collaborates with municipalities in the prefecture to create LCCACs. Several cities in Saitama Prefecture have established such LCCACs with the prefecture. Among them, the Toda City Climate Change Adaptation Center provides information to Toda residents and businesses while receiving information and technical advice from Saitama Climate Change Adaptation Center. As the nearest arm of local government to its residents, Toda is also pursuing its own initiatives, including publishing past heat illness case numbers and raising awareness about heat illness and other climate change risks.
Collection and analysis of region-specific data and findings
The national government and research institutions have long collected and analyzed data on the impacts of climate change, but more recently, local governments have also started to collect and analyze data that had not previously been recognized as relevant to climate change, as well as original data more closely tied to their local areas.
Example: Centralized collection and analysis of region-specific data (Nagano Prefecture)
Because Nagano Prefecture is landlocked, many of the familiar examples of global warming, such as its impact on polar bears or coral reefs, fail to resonate with its inhabitants. Given this situation, the prefectural government decided it needed to provide examples relevant to Nagano, and to do so, it needed to collect and analyze meteorological data specific to the region. Nagano established the Shinshu Climate Change Adaptation Center and built the Shinshu Climate Change Monitoring Network to collect and analyze observational data related to climate change and disseminate information based on its findings.
There are 45 Automated Meteorological Data Acquisition System (AMeDAS) precipitation monitoring points in Nagano Prefecture, of which 29 also monitor temperature, wind, and other parameters. Eight of these furthermore monitor snowfall. The monitoring network collects meteorological data (mainly temperature, rain, and snow) other than AMeDAS monitored by the central and prefectural governments, boosting the number of observation points by up to 9 times that of AMeDAS alone for some data, a sufficient density to deliver an accurate picture of the prefecture's complex climate.
Example: Kanagawa Climate Change Adaptation Center’s Kanagawa Heat Survey
In recent years, the number of heat illness cases have increased in Kanagawa Prefecture as it has elsewhere in Japan. As such, the Kanagawa Climate Change Adaptation Center has been carrying out initiatives focused on heat. One of those is the Kanagawa Heat Survey, a unique initiative prompted by the idea that having residents measure heat index data in their own local communities might help to personalize the issue of climate change for them.
The survey involved distributing heat index meters to participants and asking them to measure the heat index outdoors on designated days during the month of August. In FY2021, the center procured 100 heat index meters, but when it put out a call for survey participants, it received 262 applications. As a result, it procured another 100 meters for FY2022. The participant questionnaire survey results revealed that about 30% of the participants had paid more attention to avoiding heat illness than the previous year, and that the survey enabled participants to learn about the heat index.
Raising public awareness
Local governments are endeavoring to raise public awareness of climate change impacts and adaptation in their jurisdictions. Many local governments create their own guidebooks, websites, and other content tailored to the features of their respective local areas. A variety of materials is also available on A-PLAT for use in raising public awareness.
Adaptation support for businesses
To encourage businesses to pursue climate change adaptation measures, local governments are conducting surveys of initiatives being taken by businesses, setting up online platforms and holding seminars to share information, and providing subsidies and other kinds of direct support. Examples of support measures being taken by local governments in each region are introduced on A-PLAT.
Adaptation challenges for local governments
Underdeveloped administrative capacity (budget, personnel)
Respondents in questionnaire surveys on challenges in formulating or implementing adaptation plans within local governments frequently cite "paucity of experience and expertise" and "difficulties in securing budget and resources".
Raising public awareness of adaptation
A major challenge in promoting adaptation is that the concept of adaptation is not yet widely understood. Since adaptation involves many departments within local governments, efforts are needed to cultivate understanding throughout local governments. Since implementing adaptation measures also requires the understanding of local residents and businesses, getting these stakeholders interested in adaptation is another hurdle.