Japan will make a last gasp effort today to coax the US back into talks on global warming but made it clear that it will not abandon the Kyoto Protocol on reducing greenhouse gases even without the support of its main ally.
The Prime Minister, Mr Junichiro Koizumi, has sent a high-level mission to Washington to urge the world's biggest polluter to rejoin climate change talks, which enter a crucial stage next week at a summit in Bonn.
After a week of visits from pro-agreement countries including Mr John Prescott, the British Deputy Prime Minister, Japan seems prepared to ratify the protocol by 2002 even if the US insists on remaining on the sidelines. New Zealand also said yesterday it was prepared to go ahead without the US.
President Bush pulled the US out of the talks earlier this year, calling them "fatally flawed".
Without the US on board, Japan's support is considered crucial to the success or failure of the Kyoto process, which can only go into legally binding effect if it is ratified by 55 nations accounting for at least 55 per cent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.
But Tokyo has sent out mixed signals about its intentions. While proud of having "fathered" the protocol, Tokyo is split over the merits of the deal and appeared deeply reluctant to go ahead without the US.
But after a week of intense domestic political pressure and lobbying in Tokyo by Mr Prescott and other pro-treaty European diplomats, the Environment Minister, Ms Yuriko Kawaguchi, will emphasise Japan's "special feeling" for the protocol with her US counterpart, Ms Christie Whitman, today.
This may represent a shift away from the pro-American stance expressed last month by Mr Koizumi, who said US participation was essential.
Yesterday, the Prime Minister's spokesman, Mr Tsutomu Himeno, said that Japan could press ahead regardless.
"Ms Kawaguchi is not going to Washington to compromise," he said. "We believe US participation is extremely important, but we don't characterise it as a condition for ratification. Our goal remains to ratify the Kyoto protocol by 2002."
Before he became prime minister, Mr Koizumi attacked the US decision to abandon Kyoto as "deplorable", but in office and with an Upper House election looming, he has chosen to play for time.
While many European leaders have portrayed the Bonn summit next week as the last chance to hammer out a deal in time, Japanese ministers have suggested a decision can wait until a conference in Marrakesh, Morocco, in October.
Part of the reason for this ambivalent stance is that Japan has its own problems with the Kyoto Protocol.
Officials complain that to make 1990 the base year for the cuts is bad for Japan, which put in place most of its energy conservation measures in the 1970s. Business leaders fear the costs of implementing the treaty will put Japanese companies at a competitive disadvantage to US firms.