Photo/Illutration In this Jan. 27 file photo, President Joe Biden signs an executive order on climate change in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo)

April 22 is Earth Day. When it was celebrated for the first time in 1970, an unusual experiment was conducted in the United States.

The aim was to make people pay attention to the Earth's environment.

New York City closed some of its avenues to traffic to create blocks of car-free zones in the hopes of regaining a clear sky untainted by exhaust fumes.

Japan followed America’s lead in the summer of that year, turning streets in Tokyo's Ginza district and other areas into pedestrian thoroughfares, which were dubbed "Hokosha Tengoku" (literally, pedestrian paradise).

According to a newspaper article from the time, Tokyo Governor Ryokichi Minobe (1904-1984) sent a message to New York City Mayor John Lindsay (1921-2000), noting that traffic problems boiled down to how to protect people's lives from air pollution.

Car exhaust posed a huge challenge to the entire industrialized world.

Today, greenhouse gases have become a global problem from which no nation is spared.

U.S. President Joe Biden has invited 40 nations to the virtual Leaders Summit on Climate, which is being streamed live on April 22 and 23.

Chinese President Xi Jinping is attending the summit, which suggests that China and the United States are setting aside their differences on economic and security issues for now.

After the chaos created by President Donald Trump, international collaboration on climate change is finally back.

But embarrassingly, Japan appears to have been slacking off, as if it was taking advantage of the confusion.

Japan is now being forced to set a new greenhouse gas reduction target for 2030.

A recent article in The Asahi Shimbun's evening edition reported that Japanese senior high school students, along with others intent on doing their share for the climate summit, took to the streets to demand a massive increase in the nation's emissions reduction target.

But unfortunately, Japan is not the only country where specific actions to curb climate change keep getting shelved for younger and future generations to deal with.

While we are being distracted by the global COVID-19 pandemic, we should also be aware that other major problems are not going to wait for us.

--The Asahi Shimbun, April 22

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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