Power Balance Outlook for Winter 2025/26

METI and OCCTO released the outlook for Winter 2025/26 power supply-demand balance at the end of October. This season is expected to be one of the most challenging periods in recent years due to stru...

Next-Gen Energy Startups: Cutting Emissions Through AI and Efficiency

Prime Minister Takaichi’s administration recently identified 17 strategic fields for public-private investment to revive Japan’s economy – with clean energy (GX), fusion power, and energy security at...

Too Strategic to Lose: Why Japan Won’t Cut Russian LNG imports

The U.S. is intensifying efforts to inhibit an important revenue source for the Kremlin – LNG. While Europe is slowly shaking its dependence on Russian LNG, Washington is also turning up the diplomat...

Push For Geothermal: Smart Opportunity or Costly Gamble?

Japan has decided to get serious about geothermal energy for the first time since the 1990s. METI’s new geothermal target – 7.7 GW of installed capacity by 2050 – sounds modest next to solar or wind ...

CO2 Gets a Price: GX-ETS Moves from Policy to Practice

What is the price of emitting CO2 in Japan? We’re about to find out. After years of rehearsal under the voluntary GX League program, the Green Transformation Emissions Trading Scheme (GX-ETS) will be...