Climate Policy Engagement Analysis
Climate Policy Engagement Overview: Toray Industries has some active engagement with climate policies, with a mix of positive and ambiguous positions. While the company has generally positive top-line messaging on climate policy, it appears to have limited recent engagement with specific climate-related regulations. Toray Industries has supported the increased use of renewable energy and green hydrogen in industrial and transportation sectors, but is occasionally ambiguous about the production method or end-use sector of hydrogen. The company holds some memberships to industry associations that have negatively engaged with climate policies.
Top-line Messaging on Climate Policy: Toray Industries has generally positive top-line messaging on climate change, but with some ambiguity around the need for climate policy. In the company’s 2024 Toray Report, published in November 2024, Toray Industries supported carbon neutrality by 2050. It also supported the UNFCCC process to limit global warming below 1.5°C in the same report. In a Nikkei Business media article published in December 2023, Toray Industries Chairman Akihiro Nikkaku appeared to support a greater role for Japan on international rule-making on environmental issues, but he did not state a clear position on the need for climate change regulation.
Engagement with Climate-Related Regulations: InfluenceMap found limited evidence of engagement by Toray Industries with specific climate-related regulations in 2024-2025. In its 2023 CDP response, Toray Industries stated that it advocates for incentives and calculation standards for GHG reductions in chemical and materials supply chains, but was unclear whether it supports GHG emissions legislation. At a December 2023 hearing with the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI), Toray Industries recognized the global promotion of circular economy policies, including METI’s Circular Economy Vision 2020, but was unclear whether it supported the need for circular economy regulation.
Positioning on Energy Transition: Toray Industries has previously supported the increased use of renewable energy and green hydrogen in industrial and transportation sectors, particularly in METI hearings in March and August 2023. However, it is occasionally ambiguous about the production method or end-use sector of hydrogen in more recent engagements. In a METI hearing in May 2025, Toray Industries broadly supported the development of hydrogen produced from renewables to decarbonize heat, transportation fuel, and industry. According to a METI news release, Toray Industries appeared to support hydrogen-related investment and development in a June 2024 meeting with the European Commissioner and Japan’s Prime Minister and Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, but its positions on the production method and intended use were unclear. In a February 2024 interview with the Indian Chemical News, Toray Industries Mitsuo Ohya supported a “hydrogen ecosystem in India,” but did not specify the production method or intended use for hydrogen.
Industry Association Governance: Toray Industries appears to have limited disclosure of its industry association memberships on its corporate website, accessed in August 2025. It has disclosed its memberships to the Global Environment Subcommittee of the Japan Business Federation (Keidanren) and the technical affairs committee of the Japan Chemical Industry Association (JCIA). However, the company’s disclosure appears to exclude three industry associations which are actively engaged on climate policy, namely the Central Japan Economic Federation (CJEF), Real Estate Companies Association of Japan, and Kansai Economic Federation. Keidanren and CJEF appear to have engaged negatively with a number of climate-related policies, as well as JCIA to a lesser extent. Toray Industries has not published a review of its industry association memberships and climate policy engagement.
InfluenceMap collects and assesses evidence of corporate climate policy engagement on a weekly basis, depending on the availability of information from each specific data source (for more information see our methodology). While this analysis flows through to the company’s scores each week, the summary above is updated periodically. This summary was last updated in Q3 (Jul-Sep) 2025.