By Chisa Fujioka

TOKYO, March 11 (Reuters) - Japan, the world's fifth-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, wants to design an emissions trading scheme as soon as possible to help it fight climate change after the Kyoto protocol expires in 2012, the environment minister said on Tuesday.

Ichiro Kamoshita also said Japan would consider extra regulatory steps such as an environment tax if there was a danger the country would miss its Kyoto target of cutting emissions by 6 percent from 1990 levels over the 2008-2012 period.

"We would like to design a Japanese system for an emissions trading system -- a cap-and-trade system -- as soon as possible," Kamoshita told Reuters in an interview.

"But when we will implement this will depend on strategic factors such as support from the public, the economy and ties with other countries."

In a boost for its green credentials in the year it hosts the Group of Eight leading nations' summit, Japan has started talks on introducing its own version of a cap-and-trade system with mandatory emissions limits, a system already in place in Europe.

The move is a major change in Japanese climate policy, long seen as lacking teeth because of the leading business lobby's reluctance to mandatory targets, which had led the government to rely on voluntary pledges of emissions cuts from industries.

Kamoshita said a trade system was being worked out to run after the Kyoto protocol expires, although the environment ministry would not shy away from proposing other measures before then if the target was looking hard to meet.

One option could be an environment tax, he said, with the environment ministry having floated ideas such as higher costs for coal and fuel oil.

"We are thinking of the need to introduce new, additional regulatory measures, or possibly economic measures, if efforts are not going well before 2010, although for now industries are doing their best to follow revised plans" to meet the Kyoto target, he said.

The government earlier this year outlined extra steps for chopping greenhouse gas emissions, including deeper but voluntary cuts for industries.

SECTOR TARGETS

On global climate policy, Kamoshita said Japan would seek to take the leadership in talks on an agreement to succeed Kyoto.

Japan will host a three-day meeting of 20 major polluter nations from Friday, just ahead of the official start of a new round of U.N.-led talks on a global climate agreement to be held in Bangkok from March 31 to April 4.

"I don't necessarily agree to the idea that emissions reduction rules be decided as a simple result of all countries agreeing to the European Union's rules," Kamoshita said.

"There are developing countries to consider, as well as the United States and Japan."

Japan has proposed that major polluter nations work out emissions targets for each industry, which added up would then form a national target.

But this bottom-up proposal could see resistance from Europe and green groups, which want developed countries to agree to national greenhouse gas emissions targets that industries must then adhere to.

Kamoshita said Japan's approach would still make sure that global emissions are halved by 2050, while ensuring fairness so that industries are acknowledged for past investments in green technology.

"Those who are trying hard must be rewarded somehow."

"If you ask a 100 kg person who's never gone on a diet to lose 10 kg, that person's diet is going to be much different from that of a physically fit boxer who's trying to lose 10 kg," he said. (Reporting by Chisa Fujioka; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

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