Until recently, nuclear fusion was a little-discussed topic in Japan. Widely seen as a technology with great promise but only a distant future, fusion has long been on the fringes of Japan’s clean energy transition debate. That’s now changing. 

In 2022, Japan began to outline a nuclear fusion strategy, releasing a draft in 2023. Today, there’s a burgeoning ecosystem of startups that are trialing various ways to achieve energy’s holy grail. However, research and experiments come with a cost, and in the case of fusion that’s quite high. Movement in financing is in the very early stages.

Other factors are helping accelerate Japan’s fusion sector footprint. A recent founding of an industry group, J-Fusion, will not only help give the tech a stronger voice in official energy discussions domestically, but aims to bolster domestic players as they keep pace with international rivals. 

Japan NRG takes an in-depth look at the achievements to date and challenges yet to be overcome.