Hundreds of media outlets across the country have joined the “I am the 89%” campaign.
A woman carries an umbrella to protect herself from the sun as pedestrians cross a street in the Kabukicho entertainment district in Shinjuku, central Tokyo, July 29, 2025.
(Richard A. Brooks/Getty Images) At a time when some American media backed down When it comes to climate, hundreds of news organizations in Japan are heading in the opposite direction.
Inspired by “Covering Climate Now”89% Project”, all networks and television stations in Japan began a campaign this spring two-year program to air public service advertisements emphasizing that 89% of Japanese support climate action, “so people shouldn’t be afraid to talk about it.” And talking about climate change, as renowned science communicator Katharine Hayhoe often says, is an essential first step to doing something about it.
Today, 136 Japanese media outlets have gone further, joining a public awareness project said: “I am part of the 89% who want to stop global warming”. Organized by the United Nations Information Center in Japan, the project aims “to make visible the voices of personalities and people from all walks of life who want to end global warming, and to amplify them into a collective voice of society”.
Many of the biggest names in Japanese news media will participate, including three CCNow partners: newspapers Asahi Shimbun And Hokkaido Shimbun and the public broadcasting service NHK. Other participants include newspapers Yomiuri Shimbun And Nikkei and commercial broadcasters Nippon TV and Fuji Television. Starting June 25, media outlets published an 89% topical message every day on their social media accounts, websites and other platforms. (Messaging, which includes original content creations like this message featuring an animated pink and white bear, will continue until the end of the year and will be compiled here.)
The project takes place in a country that plays an important, yet often overlooked, role in the global climate challenge. Japan has long been one of the world’s largest economies; it is currently the fourth largestaccording to the International Monetary Fund, behind the United States, China and Germany. It has also long been one of the largest annual emitters of greenhouse gases; its 972 million tonnes of CO2 emissions in 2024 placed it fifth in the world. At the same time, Japan is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, including extreme heat and increased typhoons. The summer of 2025 was the hottest in Japanese history.
Yet the country’s conservative Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, has shown little interest in defusing the climate emergency, as have his counterparts in the United States and elsewhere. As Green Bloomberg revealed Several months ago, the trade deal Takaichi signed with Donald Trump in October committed Japan to investing $33 billion in a gas-fired power plant in Ohio that, if completed, would rank as “one of the gas-fired power plants” in Ohio. [US]the largest sources of CO2 emissions from electricity production”, Green Bloomberg reported, or roughly the equivalent of “3.8 million gasoline cars in a year of driving.”
Current number
Would Takaichi have signed such an agreement if she knew that 89% of Japanese want their government to take stricter climate measures? It’s impossible to know. What is known is that politicians in many countries wrongly assume that their voters don’t really care about fighting climate change. In Germany, for example, a new study In Nature concluded from interviews with hundreds of elected officials across the partisan spectrum that they have “vastly underestimated” public support for climate action, particularly actions that can have the most impact, like higher taxes and stricter laws.
This disconnect between what the majority of the public wants and what politicians think they want exists at a time when rapid and effective climate action is more urgent than ever. Not only is the planet becoming hotter than it has been since the emergence of civilization 10,000 years ago; It is it gets hotter faster than even scientists had predicted. Global temperatures will continue to rise until the burning of fossil fuels is phased out, which scientists say can be achieved with existing technologies. Journalists should connect all these dots. Bravo to our Japanese colleagues for providing a model that we can emulate.
Marc Hertsgaard Mark Hertsgaard is the environment correspondent for The nation and Executive Director of Global Media Collaboration Cover the climate now. His new book is Big Red’s Mercy: the filming of Deborah Cotton and a story of race in America.
