Shinichiro Asayama

Profile Information

Affiliation: Senior Researcher, Social Systems Division, National Institute for Environmental Studies

Degree: Ph.D(Mar, 2013, Tohoku University)

Researcher number: 50726908
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6817-3862
J-GLOBAL ID: 201301027980751216
Researcher ID: W-3910-2017
researchmap Member ID: B000229136

Shinichiro Asayama is a Senior Researcher at Social Systems Division, National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan. As an environmental social scientist, he is interested in understanding how people construct 'climate change' as a narrative for social change (or non-change). His research broadly focuses on the politics of scientific knowledge and technological imaginaries in the science-policy interface of climate change. In particular, from the interpretive and critical social scientific perspectives, he studies the role of discourses, framings and narratives in shaping the public debate around carbon removal and solar geoengineering technologies.

Research Interests

Research Areas

Research History

Apr, 2021 - Present

Senior Researcher, Social Systems Division, National Institute for Environmental Studies
Apr, 2020 - Mar, 2021

Senior Researcher, Center for Social and Environmental Systems Research, National Institute for Environmental Studies
Apr, 2017 - Mar, 2020

JSPS Research Fellow, Faculty of Political Science and Economics, Waseda University
Feb, 2018 - Jan, 2020

Visiting Scholar, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge
Apr, 2014 - Mar, 2017

Research Associate, Center for Social and Environmental Systems Research, National Institute for Environmental Studies
Apr, 2012 - Mar, 2014

JSPS Research Fellow, Center for Northeast Asian Studies, Tohoku University
Aug, 2011 - Sep, 2011

Research Assistant, Climate Change Group, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies
Apr, 2009 - Mar, 2010

Reporter, Business News Desk, Jiji Press

Education

Apr, 2010 - Mar, 2013

PhD, Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Tohoku University
Apr, 2007 - Mar, 2009

MA, Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Tohoku University
Apr, 2002 - Mar, 2007

BSc, School of Engineering, Department of Metallurgy, Materials Science and Materials Processing, Tohoku University
Aug, 2004 - Jul, 2005

Guest Student, Technical University of Denmark

Major Papers

The history and future of IPCC special reports: A dual role of politicisation and normalisation

Shinichiro Asayama

Climatic Change, 177 137, Aug 21, 2024 Peer-reviewedLead authorCorresponding author
Three institutional pathways to envision the future of the IPCC

Shinichiro Asayama, Kari De Pryck, Silke Beck, Béatrice Cointe, Paul N. Edwards, Hélène Guillemot, Karin M. Gustafsson, Friederike Hartz, Hannah Hughes, Bård Lahn …

Nature Climate Change, 13(9) 877-880, Sep 4, 2023 Lead authorCorresponding author
Controversies

Shinichiro Asayama, Kari De Pryck, Mike Hulme

A Critical Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 148-156, Dec 31, 2022 Peer-reviewedInvitedLead authorCorresponding author
Threshold, budget and deadline: beyond the discourse of climate scarcity and control

Shinichiro Asayama

Climatic Change, 167(3-4) 33, Aug, 2021 Peer-reviewedLead authorCorresponding author
The Oxymoron of Carbon Dioxide Removal: Escaping Carbon Lock-In and yet Perpetuating the Fossil Status Quo?

Shinichiro Asayama

Frontiers in Climate, 3 673515, Jul 12, 2021 Peer-reviewedLead authorCorresponding author
Balancing a budget or running a deficit? The offset regime of carbon removal and solar geoengineering under a carbon budget

Shinichiro Asayama, Mike Hulme, Nils Markusson

Climatic Change, 167(1-2) 25, Jul, 2021 Peer-reviewedLead authorCorresponding author
Are we ignoring a black elephant in the Anthropocene? Climate change and global pandemic as the crisis in health and equality

Shinichiro Asayama, Seita Emori, Masahiro Sugiyama, Fumiko Kasuga, Chiho Watanabe

Sustainability Science, 16 695-701, Mar, 2021 Peer-reviewedLead authorCorresponding author
The North–South Divide on Public Perceptions of Stratospheric Aerosol Geoengineering?: A Survey in Six Asia-Pacific Countries

Shinichiro Asayama

Environmental Communication, 14(5) 641-656, Jan 3, 2020 Peer-reviewed
Engineering climate debt: temperature overshoot and peak-shaving as risky subprime mortgage lending

Shinichiro Asayama, Mike Hulme

Climate Policy, 19(8) 937-946, Sep 14, 2019 Peer-reviewedLead authorCorresponding author
Why setting a climate deadline is dangerous

Shinichiro Asayama, Rob Bellamy, Oliver Geden, Warren Pearce, Mike Hulme

Nature Climate Change, 9(8) 570-572, Aug, 2019 Lead author
Beyond solutionist science for the Anthropocene: To navigate the contentious atmosphere of solar geoengineering

Shinichiro Asayama, Masahiro Sugiyama, Atsushi Ishii, Takanobu Kosugi

The Anthropocene Review, 6(1-2) 19-37, Apr 12, 2019 Peer-reviewedLead authorCorresponding author
Making sense of climate engineering: a focus group study of lay publics in four countries

Victoria Wibeck, Anders Hansson, Jonas Anshelm, Shinichiro Asayama, Lisa Dilling, Pamela M. Feetham, Rachel Hauser, Atsushi Ishii, Masahiro Sugiyama

Climatic Change, 145(1-2) 1-14, Sep 20, 2017 Peer-reviewed
Selling stories of techno-optimism? The role of narratives on discursive construction of carbon capture and storage in the Japanese media

Shinichiro Asayama, Atsushi Ishii

Energy Research & Social Science, 31 50-59, Sep, 2017 Peer-reviewedLead authorCorresponding author
The Asia-Pacific’s role in the emerging solar geoengineering debate

Masahiro Sugiyama, Shinichiro Asayama, Atsushi Ishii, Takanobu Kosugi, John C. Moore, Jolene Lin, Penehuro F. Lefale, Wil Burns, Masatomo Fujiwara, Arunabha Ghosh …

Climatic Change, 143(1-2) 1-12, Jun 4, 2017 Peer-reviewed
5

気候論争における反省的アドボカシーに向けて：錯綜する科学と政策の境界

朝山慎一郎, 江守正多, 増田耕一

社会技術研究論文集, 14 21-37, Jun, 2017 Peer-reviewedLead authorCorresponding author
Ambivalent climate of opinions: Tensions and dilemmas in understanding geoengineering experimentation

Shinichiro Asayama, Masahiro Sugiyama, Atsushi Ishii

Geoforum, 80 82-92, Mar, 2017 Peer-reviewedLead authorCorresponding author
Transdisciplinary co-design of scientific research agendas: 40 research questions for socially relevant climate engineering research

Masahiro Sugiyama, Shinichiro Asayama, Takanobu Kosugi, Atsushi Ishii, Seita Emori, Jiro Adachi, Keigo Akimoto, Masatomo Fujiwara, Tomoko Hasegawa, Yasushi Hibi …

Sustainability Science, 12(1) 31-44, Jun 4, 2016 Peer-reviewedCorresponding author
Catastrophism toward ‘opening up’ or ‘closing down’? Going beyond the apocalyptic future and geoengineering

Shinichiro Asayama

Current Sociology, 63(1) 89-93, Dec 15, 2014 Peer-reviewedInvitedLead authorCorresponding author
Reconstruction of the boundary between climate science and politics: The IPCC in the Japanese mass media, 1988–2007

Shinichiro Asayama, Atsushi Ishii

Public Understanding of Science, 23(2) 189-203, Aug 3, 2012 Peer-reviewedLead authorCorresponding author

Books and Other Publications

気候変動と社会 : 基礎から学ぶ地球温暖化問題

東京大学気候と社会連携研究機構 (Role: Contributor, コラム1.2 気候変動問題のフレーミング)

東京大学出版会, Jul, 2024 (ISBN: 9784130627320)
環境経済・政策学事典

環境経済・政策学会 (Role: Contributor, メディアとフレーミング)

丸善出版, May, 2018 (ISBN: 9784621302927)
メディアは環境問題をどう伝えてきたのか : 公害・地球温暖化・生物多様性

関谷, 直也, 瀬川, 至朗, 永井, 健太郎, 齋藤, さやか, 朝山, 慎一郎, 香坂, 玲 (Role: Contributor, 気候変動におけるメディアと政策のはざま：ガバナンスの視座から再考するメディア言説の政治性)

ミネルヴァ書房, Apr, 2015 (ISBN: 9784623073634)

Misc.

残されたバジェットを超過するとき：負債のメタファーから読み解く二酸化炭素除去と太陽放射改変の役割

朝山慎一郎

エネルギー・資源, 44(3) 171-175, 2023 InvitedLead authorCorresponding author
A better understanding of non-Western views is needed for inclusive SRM governance

Sugiyama M, Asayama S, Kosugi T

C2G Blog, Feb, 2020
Temperature 'overshoot and peak-shaving' strategy as risky as subprime mortgages

Asayama S, Hulme M

Climate Strategies and Climate Policy Blog, Aug, 2019
Betting on speculative geoengineering may risk an escalating ‘climate debt crisis’

Asayama S, Hulme M

The Conversation, Jul, 2019
Climate Engineering Conference 2014 (International conference on geoengineering

SUGIYAMA Masahiro, ASAYAMA Shinichiro, IWASAKI Suginori, KOSUGI Takanobu, HARAGUCHI Masahiko, MORIYAMA Ryo

62(1) 33-41, 2015
Misunderstandings in "Failure in communicating an environmental issue regarding melting ice in the polar regions and change of sea level"

Jusen Asuka, Seiichiro Yamamoto, Shinichiro Asayama

Nippon Kinzoku Gakkaishi/Journal of the Japan Institute of Metals, 74(1) 61-63, Jan, 2010 Peer-reviewed

Research Projects

世界を対象とした1.5℃気候安定化目標下の二酸化炭素除去の選択肢とその含意

環境研究総合推進費, 環境省, Apr, 2024 - Mar, 2027

藤森真一郎
国別ネットゼロ目標の倫理的・政策的妥当性：複数の公平性原則からの新たな評価

科学研究費助成事業, 基盤研究(C), 日本学術振興会, Apr, 2024 - Mar, 2027

朝山慎一郎
世界全域を対象とした技術・経済・社会的な実現可能性を考慮した脱炭素社会への道筋に関する研究

環境研究総合推進費, 環境省, Apr, 2021 - Mar, 2024

藤森真一郎
New frontiers of decarbonization and climate change mitigation scenario after the Paris Agreement

Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research, Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B), Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Apr, 2021 - Mar, 2024
気候変動の適応をめぐる科学と政治の交錯ー気候工学と気候移住を事例に

科学研究費助成事業若手研究, 若手研究, 日本学術振興会, Apr, 2020 - Mar, 2023

朝山慎一郎
脱炭素化技術の日本での開発/普及推進戦略におけるELSIの確立

戦略的な研究開発の推進社会技術研究開発事業, 科学技術振興機構, 2020 - 2023

江守正多
気候科学の知識生産とメディア報道の政治作用：ＩＰＣＣを事例とした日英比較研究

科学研究費助成事業特別研究員奨励費, 特別研究員奨励費, 日本学術振興会, Apr, 2017 - Mar, 2020

朝山慎一郎
一般市民の科学技術リテラシーと環境政策に関する合意形成のあり方に関する調査研究

環境研究総合推進費, 環境省, Apr, 2014 - Mar, 2017

青柳みどり
気候工学（ジオエンジニアリング）のガバナンス構築に向けた総合研究の可能性調査

フューチャー・アース構想の推進事業・フューチャー・アース：課題解決に向けたトランスディシプリナリー研究の可能性調査, 科学技術振興機構社会技術開発センター, Jan, 2015 - Mar, 2016

杉山昌広
CCS Demonstration Projects: The role of the mass-media

Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C), Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C), Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Apr, 2013 - Mar, 2016

ISHII Atsushi, ASAYAMA Shinichiro
日本の気候変動政策の意思決定過程におけるマスメディアの役割とその影響に関する研究

科学研究費助成事業特別研究員奨励費, 特別研究員奨励費, 日本学術振興会, Apr, 2012 - Mar, 2013

朝山慎一郎

Committee Memberships

2024 - Present

Associate Editor, Dialogues on Climate Change
2024 - Present

Associate Deputy Editor, Climatic Change
2021 - Present

Review Editor / Guest Associate Editor, Frontiers in Climate (Section: Carbon Dioxide Removal)
2019 - 2021

Steering Committee, Climate Engineering in Context 2021 (CEC21)
2014 - 2015

委員, 環境省コミュニケーション・マーケティングWG
2010 - 2014

オブザーバー, 環境省コミュニケーション・マーケティングWG

Professional Memberships

Awards

Aug, 2024

SEEPS Commentary Award, Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies

Asayama et al. "Three institutional pathways to envision the future of the IPCC” (Nature Climate Change, 2023, Vol.13, 877-880)
May, 2018

Best Paper Awards 2017 (Outstanding Article), Sustainability Science

Sugiyama et al. “Transdisciplinary co-design of scientific research agendas: 40 research questions for socially relevant climate engineering research”