The Japanese government approved on April 3 the Policy on Electricity System Reform, the most sweeping changes to Japan’s electricity utility regulations in decades. As reported in an earlier post, the reforms, to be carried out by 2020, include the establishment by about 2015 of an independent body to oversee power supply and demand across [...]
Archive for the ‘Japan’ Category
Japan Energy Sector Reforms Move Forward
April 8th, 2013 
Sean Connell 
Posted in Japan, News, Policy, Renewable Energy 
Tags: Energy Policy, Feed-in Tariff, Fukushima, Nuclear Energy, Sean Connell, Shale Gas 
No Comments »Japanese Forestry: Beautifully Overdone
April 1st, 2013 Sean Connell April 1 arrives at what is usually the peak time for cherry blossoms in Japan. Canopies of pink and white blossoms cover parks and brighten up streets, drawing crowds of people to marvel at their beauty, reflect on the fleeting nature of life that the short-lived blossoms have traditionally represented in Japanese culture, or engage [...]
Posted in Agriculture, Japan, Policy, Sustainability Tags: Forestry Policy, Japan, Public Health, Sean Connell, Silviculture No Comments »Japan Appears to be Returning to Nuclear Power, but Citizens are Resisting
March 12th, 2013 Luke Jackson The nuclear disaster at the Fukushima-Daiichi plant in March 2011 moved Japan to cease energy generation from all nuclear power plants in the country, and halt construction of plants being built. For the last two years, Japan has experienced a shortage of energy as a result of the nuclear plant shutdown, but it appears that [...]
Posted in Japan, Policy, Renewable Energy Tags: David Suzuki, Fukushima, Geothermal, Japan, Luke Jackson, Nuclear, Protests, Renewable Energy, Shinzo Abe No Comments »Renewables in the Mix in Japan’s Energy Sector Reforms
February 11th, 2013 Sean Connell In a development with important implications for the future expansion of renewable energy generation and use in Japan, a Japanese government panel on February 8 gave its endorsement to a report outlining a reform of the country’s energy sector regulations, including the end of regional monopolies of energy utilities. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry [...]
Posted in Clean Technology, Japan, News, Policy, Renewable Energy Tags: Energy Policy, Fukushima, Japan, Renewable Energy, Sean Connell No Comments »Sustainable Community Development and Disaster Recovery
February 4th, 2013 Sean Connell In the months following the March 2011 earthquake that devastated Japan’s northeastern Tohoku region, Japanese government leaders pledged as part of reconstruction efforts to rebuild several of the most heavily affected towns as “Future Cities” and “eco-cities,” smart communities incorporating cutting-edge renewable energy and environmental technologies. In addition to making these communities more self-sufficient in meeting their energy [...]
Posted in Clean Technology, Green Building, Green Economy, Japan, Local Energy/Food, Policy, Renewable Energy, Smart Grid, Sustainable Development Tags: Green Technology, Greensburg, Kansas, Local-level Exchange, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Renewable Energy, Sean Connell, Tohoku, U.S.-Japan Relations No Comments »Japan Steps Back From 25% Emissions Reduction Target
January 28th, 2013 Sean Connell The Japanese government announced on January 24 that it would be reviewing its international pledge to reduce Japan’s greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels, with plans to establish a new target. At a press conference, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, the top spokesman for new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, said that [...]
Posted in Clean Technology, Economics, Japan, News, Policy Tags: Climate Change, Energy, Feed-in Tariff, Fukushima, Nuclear, Sean Connell No Comments »Japan Studying Ways to Charge EVs While Driving
January 11th, 2013 Justin Manger 
After a year and a half of building on a shaky linguistic base, my Japanese has progressed enough to be able to read the newspaper (thank you ICI). It’s still slow going but reading a newspaper in a foreign language is a great complement to other news sources and brings a nice cultural perspective while [...]
Posted in Business, Clean Technology, Green Products, Japan, Justin Manger, News, Transportation Tags: Battery, Cars, Electric Vehicles, Green Technology No Comments »Tsunami Debris and Sustainability
January 7th, 2013 Sean Connell A dock that washed up along a remote stretch of the Pacific coast in Olympic National Park in December is the most recent herald of one of the most important environmental issues of 2013 facing the Pacific U.S. states and Canada’s province of British Columbia. The tsunami that devastated northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011 [...]
Posted in Japan, Local Energy/Food, Oceans, Sustainability Tags: Aquaculture, Environment, Food, Fukushima, Hawaii, Invasive Species, NOAA, Oregon, Sean Connell, Tsunami, Washington State No Comments »Japan’s Zipcar
January 7th, 2013 Justin Manger 
Walking around exploring the new neighborhood (Yoyogiuehara/Komaba) I moved to in Tokyo over winter vacation, I came across what seems to be a Japanese version of Zipcar, the car-sharing service that was recently acquired by Avis. The service is called Times Plus（タイムズプラス; website in Japanese only) and seems fairly similar to Zipcar, with only a few [...]
With Abe Back, Are Reactors Back, Too?
January 1st, 2013 Justin Manger 
A few weeks ago, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) took back control of the Japanese government and named Shinzo Abe Prime Minister. If this name seems familiar, he was Prime Minister for 1 problem plagued year from 2006-2007. This is the same party whose nearly uninterrupted half century in power was resoundingly broken in 2009 [...]
Posted in Business, Clean Technology, Green Economy, Japan, Justin Manger, News Tags: Alternative Energy, Electricity Generation, Environment, Fukushima No Comments »
