Public support for climate adaptation aid and migrants: a conjoint experiment in Japan

Abstract

We examine public support in Japan for overseas climate adaptation assistance via foreign aid and accepting immigrants. Using a survey-embedded conjoint experiment (N = 2815), we focus on seven attributes of an adaptation policy package: (a) the continent in which the country is located; (b) the types of extreme weather event this country faces; (c) the volume of climate aid; (d) the number of climate migrants (e) Japanese exports; (f) Japanese imports, (g) the country’s record of voting with Japan in the United Nations. We find that while respondents are indifferent to aid volume, their support diminishes as the number of migrants increases. Moreover, support is higher for Asian countries, that provide export markets, vote with Japan, and where the effects of climate change are gradual. Importantly, we find that public support is not influenced by benchmarking of Japan’s or peer G7 countries’ past aid or immigration levels.