Net-zero Ambitions and Materials Availability Gap Sets up G7 Conundrum

In a few weeks Japan will assume the G7 presidency for 2023, with energy at the top of the agenda. By the time the heads of the European and North American member states arrive in Hiroshima for the s...

METI: Trouble With Local Communities Key Challenge Meeting 2050 Net-zero Goal

Historically, Japanese officials have a proud record of steering the domestic power industry along the lines written in national policy and strategy. Bureaucrats paved the way for Japan to harness it...

Japan: Energy Dinosaur or Innovator?

For most of the past decade Japan has been a favorite punching bag of the activist wing of the environmental movement. Almost each year, for example, the Climate Action Network (CAN) bestows an infam...

Can Solar Be Revived? The Shift To Smaller, Subsidy-Free Projects

Japan’s solar industry enjoyed stellar development in the early part of last decade thanks to a state program to buy renewable power at a premium and a supply chain built around domestic companies wi...

A Case Study in Local Energy: One Town’s Failed Biomass Dreams

Over the past decade Japan has vigorously promoted biomass energy as a clean and renewable form of energy. But since the start of the war in Ukraine in February this goal has acquired added urgency d...