Japan Minister's Clean Energy Critique Fuels Abe Succession Talk
- Top diplomat Kono calls government’s targets ‘lamentable’
- Comments inject tension into push for energy policy overhaul
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A Japanese cabinet minister’s criticism of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s energy policies may say more about his own political prospects than it does about the country’s debate over clean power.
Taro Kono, whom Abe appointed foreign minister last year, used a speech Sunday in the United Arab Emirates to dismiss as “lamentable” Japan’s clean energy targets. Kono’s comments, which come just days after he told his own energy task force that touting ideals that don’t match reality was like “tending bonsai in the garden while your house overflows with trash,” injects political tension into Japan’s push to draft a new energy policies.