Aso demands 'bold' green business program to boost economy

Prime Minister Taro Aso on Tuesday instructed Environment Minister Tetsuo Saito to compile a "bold" and easy-to-understand program aimed at propping up the economy by promoting measures to curb global warming.

Under the envisioned program — essentially a Japanese version of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's Green New Deal — the Environment Ministry aims to expand the environment-related business market.

The ministry's draft of the program, announced by Saito after his talks with Aso, seeks to expand the environment business market to ¥100 trillion and increase jobs in the field to 2.2 million by 2015, from the 2006 levels of ¥70 trillion and 1.4 million.

But Saito told a news conference the ministry will now seek to achieve bigger goals. After viewing draft, the prime minister told him he thought the numbers could be pushed higher in collaboration with other ministries.

Measures in the draft include providing interest-free loans for investors in environment-related fields and promoting the purchase of vehicles and housing with low carbon dioxide emissions.

The ministry is set to compile the program by the end of March.

Obama's Green New Deal seeks to invest $150 billion over 10 years in new energy and create 5 million jobs.