Natsource Japan Co, a Tokyo-based carbon broking joint venture since 2001, plans to close its business due to a lack of fee-generating opportunities in Japan, company sources said on Monday.
Natsource Japan is a joint venture led by New York-based Natsource, Japanese trading house Mitsubishi Corp and money and currency brokerage Totan Holdings Co.
“As a broker, we’ve concluded that it would be difficult to fetch higher profits in coming years,” one of the sources told Reuters.
Natsource Japan and Totan Holdings were not immediately available for comment. A Mitsubishi Corp spokesman declined to comment.
Japan, the world’s fifth-biggest emitter, in late December postponed plans for a national emissions trading scheme, bowing to business groups that warned of job losses as they compete against overseas rivals facing fewer emissions regulations.
Natsource Japan directors made the decision ahead of the government’s move to shelve the emissions trading scheme, the sources said.
The sources declined to provide further details including when the business would be closed.
