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Japan's Energy Policy Impasse

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

Andrew DeWit
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Japan's energy policy regime appears dangerously adrift in the context of accelerating climate change. The core problem is agency. On the one hand, Japanese PM Abe Shinzo and the nuclear village appear obsessed with nuclear power restarts and 20th century paradigms of the power economy. On the other hand, Japan's anti-nuclear civil society lacks the political vehicle to force a combined nuclear pullout plus drastic reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Some anti-nuclear forces do not yet understand the urgent need to reduce emissions, and are content to burn coal, despite of the patent threat of climate change. This is precisely what Japan has done in the wake of 3.11. The Abe cabinet is focused on getting restarts and a nuclear-based energy plan. Yet the scope for restarts is surprisingly limited and - incredible in this era of multiple crises and revolutions - the draft new energy plan lacks concrete numbers. The country needs better leadership on smart growth, in the context of what McKinsey specialists refer to as a “resource revolution” and MIT economists depict as “the second machine age.”

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Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 12 , Issue 14 , April 2014, e1
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This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
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Copyright © The Authors 2014

References

Notes

1 See “Ruling parties agree on draft energy policy after revisions,” Mainichi Newspaper, April 4, 2014.

2 Stephan Heck and Matt Rogers, “Are you ready for the resource revolution?” McKinsey Quarterly, March 2014.

3 Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, The Second Machine Age. W.W. Norton, 2014.

4 See (in Japanese) “60% of reactors do not meet inspection standards,” Asahi Shimbun, March 12.

5 Tom O'Sullivan's survey of various “established Japanese policy institutes that are close to Japan's industrial interests” (March 20, 2014 e-mail from Tom O'Sullivan, Mathyos Japan).

6 See Mari Saito, Aaron Sheldrick and Kentaro Hamada, “Japan may only be able to restart one-third of its nuclear reactors,” Reuters, April 1, 2014.

7 See (in Japanese) “59% oppose nuclear restarts, Asahi Shimbun opinion poll,” Asahi Shimbun, March 18, 2014.

8 See (in Japanese) “20% of communities within 30 kilometers agree to restarts,

9 See (in Japanese) “Sendai plant is given priority, with NRA suggesting restart perhaps by summer,” Nikkei Shimbun, March 13, 2014.

10 On this, see (in Japanese) “Editorial: The Sendai plant prioritization does not meet conditions for restart,” Okinawa Times, March 17, 2014.

11 My gratitude to Tom O'Sullivan of Mathyos Japan for the data on Japan's utilities and their finances.

12 Jonathan Soble, “Executive dealing with a corporate meltdown,” Financial Times, October 21, 2012.

13 See Ebinger, Charles K and John P. Banks, “The Electricity Revolution,” Brookings Research Reports, November 8, 2013.

14 David Biello, “Fight over Rooftop Solar Forecasts a Bright Future for Clean Energy,” Scientific American, March 25.

15 On this, see Andrew DeWit, “Japan's Renewable Power Prospects,” in (Jeff Kingston ed.) Critical Issues in Contemporary Japan. Routledge, 2014.

16 See (in Japanese) “New Power Firms, Generation Capacity Only at 20% of Retail Market,” Denki Shimbun, April 2, 2014.

17 See Ishida Masaya, (in Japanese) “Solar Cell Shipments Thrice Previous Year, Utility-Use Up 10 Times to 750,000 Kilowatts, Smart Japan, December 5, 2013.

18 Pew Environmental Initiatives, “Who's Winning the Clean Energy Race? 2013,” April 3, 2014.

19 An overview of the report can be accessed at IEA, “From higgen fuel to world's first fuel?” October 16, 2013.

20 Mycle Schneider and Antony Froggatt, “The World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2013,” July 30, 2013.

21 WNA World Nuclear Association (2013). “Nuclear Power in Japan,” October 28, 2013.

22 The countries are Australia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States.

23 Andrew DeWit, “Just Gas? Smart Power and Koizumi's Anti-Nuclear Challenge,” The Asia-Pacific Journal, Volume 11, Issue 50, No.3, December 16, 2013.

24 See, for example, Anthony, M. Townsend, Smart Cities: Big Data, Civic Hackers and the Quest for a New Utopia. WW Norton & Co, 2013.

25 Jonatahan G, Koomey, H. Scott Matthews, and Eric Williams (2013). “Smart Everything: Will Intelligent Systems Reduce Resource Use?,” Annual Review of Environment and Resources, Vol. 38, October 311-343.

26 Peter Kerr, “Rio Tinto chief Sam Walsh hails $80 million cash flow boost from big data,” Sydney Morning Herald, March 14, 2014.

27 Jessica Leber, “Big Oil Goes Mining for Big Data: As petroleum production gets trickier, digital innovation becomes more crucial,” MIT Technology Review, May 8, 2012.