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Kaoru Natsuda is a Professor at the College of Asia Pacific Studies, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University in Japan. He was a visiting scholar at the Institute of East Asian Studies,  Charles University in Prague (2015-2016) and a visiting professor at Budapest Business School (2019-2020). He obtained his Ph.D in Economics from the University of Sydney, Australia, and his MA in International Development Studies from the University of Bradford, UK. His research interests include industrial policy, industrial development, the automotive industry, the textile and garment industry, and political economy in Asia and Central Europe. He published papers in many Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) journals including Review of International Political Economy, European Journal of Development Research, Canadian Journal of Development Studies, Global Networks, European Planning Studies, Eurasian Geography and Economics,  Asia Europe Journal, Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, Asian Economic Journal, Asian Studies Review, Singapore Economic Review, and Bulletin of the Indonesian Economic Studies. His book (co-authored with John Thoburn), Automotive Industrialisation: Industrial Policy and Development in Southeast Asia was published by Routledge in 2021. He serves as a senior associate editor of PSU Research Review (Emerald Publishing) and an editorial board member of International Journal of Development Issues (Emerald Publishing).

In his lecture, he will focus on carbon-neutral policy in the automotive industry with a special emphasis on Japan. The lecture will review the current market trends and environmental regulations of the automotive industry in the main vehicle-producing countries and will address the key issues of sustainable automotive development with an emphasis on the Japanese automotive industry. The Japanese government's policy of advocating possible pathways to carbon neutrality supporting not only battery electric vehicles (BEVs) but also various types of powertrain vehicles including hybrid electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid vehicles, fuel cell battery vehicles, and hydrogen internal-combustion-engine vehicles.

In short, a variety of vehicle powertrain options is open for automotive producers (OEMs). Importantly, this policy is based on the concept of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method that calculates the total CO2 emissions of a whole automotive supply chain network (from energy sources, material production, parts production, vehicle production, and driving process to recycling), rather than commonly used the Tank to Wheel method that calculates CO2 emissions only during the driving process (therefore, BEVs are Zero Emission Vehicles). As a sectoral CN strategy, the Japanese automotive industry is aiming to establish green supply chain networks based on LCA, through visualization of CO2 emissions. Currently, Japanese OEMs and suppliers are making CO2 emission databases for each component that enables OEMs to calculate CO2 emissions per vehicle.

Until today, trade relationships between OEMs and suppliers are determined by three factors: quality, cost, and delivery. However, shortly, new criteria for CO2 emissions per component will be introduced as the 4th trade factor in the Japanese automotive industry.