There’s a lot of excitement around hydrogen in Japan and many companies want to get involved in the fuel’s value chain. Only one company, however, can currently produce the sought-after liquid form of hydrogen, a gas that burns without emitting CO2.

Iwatani Corporation is Japan’s biggest (and in many segments only) hydrogen player. The quiet firm originally from Osaka already controls 70% of the country’s hydrogen market, but it’s betting big that today’s hydrogen mania is based on real demand and is putting billions of dollars into a rapid output expansion over the next two-three years.

Not stopping there, Iwatani plans to grow its own brand of hydrogen service stations, lead Japan’s development of hydrogen fuel cells for ships, help commercialize Australia’s green hydrogen sector, and boost production abroad.

While many see that as a big gamble on a next-generation energy source that’s as yet unproven at scale in power generation, transport, and in manufacturing, Iwatani is not one that recently stumbled across hydrogen’s potential. It’s been waiting 60 years for everyone else to wake up to the advantages of the clean-burning fuel.

Living the hydrogen dream since 1941
The company’s involvement in the hydrogen business has deep roots.
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