Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is expected to skip the leaders' summit at COP31, the 31st Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which opens in Turkey this month, government officials said on the 4th. She also stayed away last year, making this the third consecutive year without a Japanese prime minister at the meeting.
The officials gave no reason for the decision. The source did not say which other Japanese officials, if any, will represent the country at the leaders' meeting.
Japan's absence comes as the Takaichi administration has been emphasizing a shift away from reflationary policy, a message markets have greeted coolly, with the budget process now the focus. The source does not link the two.
Takaichi has also declined to commit to attending a meeting on nuclear disarmament. The mayors of Nagasaki and Hiroshima have asked that Japan take part as an observer, according to reports.