Climate Lobbying Overview: Ricoh appears to have some active engagement with climate and energy policy in Japan. Ricoh appears supportive of climate action in its top-line messaging, and has supported the energy transition and implementation of renewable energy legislation, as well as legislation that reflects science-based GHG emissions targets.

Top-line Messaging on Climate Policy: Ricoh appears to take positive positions in its top-line messaging on climate change. On its corporate website, accessed in February 2023, Ricoh stated support towards IPCC science and the Paris Agreement, and its statements are consistent with IPCC need for drastic action. According to a news release by Ricoh Europe in April 2022, Ricoh’s President and CEO has presented a proposal supporting climate policies to Japan’s Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida.

Engagement with Climate-Related Regulations: Ricoh appears to have some active engagement with climate-related regulations in Japan. In April 2021, Ricoh co-signed a statement with Japan Climate Initiative (JCI), expressing strong support for more ambitious GHG emissions target of at least 45% reductions, and emphasizing the need for “comparable” ambition to 50% and 55% reduction targets set by the US and Europe.. June 2022, Ricoh co-signed a more ambitious statement with JCI, advocating for emission reduction legislation in line with science-based targets of 43% emissions reduction by 2030 compared to 2019 levels. A statement co-signed by Ricoh in January 2021 appeared to acknowledge the importance of energy efficiency but did not specify a position on legislative measures.

Positioning on Energy Transition: Ricoh appears to have positive positions on the energy transition. Ricoh had co-signed a statement with Japan Climate Initiative (JCI) for multiple times. In January 2021, Ricoh co-signed a statement expressing support towards stringent government intervention to increase renewable energy in Japan’s energy mix to 40-50% by 2030, and reiterated its support in an April 2021 statement where it additionally called on reducing the reliance on fossil fuels such as coal-fired power. In June 2022, Ricoh continued to advocate for accelerating the introduction of renewable energy sources given their resilience to geopolitical risks, and enable the introduction of 40%-50% share of renewables by 2030. In March 2021, Ricoh also submitted a co-signed position paper to the Japanese government, advocating for an increase Japan’s 2030 renewable energy target to 50% and requesting policies to strengthen the power grid and enable corporate Power Purchase Agreement (PPAs).

Industry Association Governance: Ricoh has not disclosed a full list of its industry association memberships in its corporate reporting, neither has it published a review of its alignment with industry associations on climate policy. Ricoh has responded to the 2021 CDP climate change information request, however the submission is not publicly available. According to InfluenceMap’s research, Ricoh’s President and CEO, Jake Yoshinori Yamashita, is a co-chair of the climate-positive group Japan Climate Leaders’ Partnership (JCLP), and appears to have made most of the company’s public statements on climate and energy policy as a representative of both Ricoh and JCLP. Ricoh is also a member of Japan Climate Initiative (JCI), which has engaged positively with climate and energy policy in Japan, as well as the Japan Association of Corporate Executives (Keizai Doyukai) and Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA). Ricoh is also a member of the Japan Business Federation (Keidanren), which has held negative positions on many strands of climate policy.

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 Q1 2023.