Hello everyone, and welcome back to another issue of TÉKUNI.
This month, Japanese PM Kishida has laid out broad policy plans to counter growing defence technology in other nations, as well as pledging $10 billion to support Asia's zero-emission path.
His Chief Cabinet Secretary, Matsuno Hirokazu, also said the country will work hard to reduce coal-fired power generation as much as possible.
Japan also announced it is looking to beef up chip, storage battery sectors as part of a stimulus plan, while a government panel proposed support for local digitisation, as well as renewed efforts in monitoring virtual assets.
Finally, Japan's Fugaku retained its title as the world's fastest supercomputer for the fourth consecutive term.
This issue of TÉKUNI is about Japan’s efforts towards zero emissions, and more generally the state of renewable energy technologies in the country.
👨💻 TÉKUNI Exclusive - Stefan Le Du
Stefan graduated in 2002 from the engineering school of what was, at that time, the French Ministry of Infrastructure, Transport and Construction.
He initially worked as a state engineer on land planning and infrastructures for public services, from transport to electronic communications.
Then, his ministry was merged with the Ministry of Environment and the Directorate for Energy from the Ministry of Industry.
“It formed what is now called in France the ministry for ecological transition, in charge of construction, transport, environment, climate, energy. It’s a huge ministry, able to build cross-sectoral policies for sustainability.”
The merge allowed Stefan to move to positions more specifically related to renewable energy and climate change.
“In 2016, I moved to Tokyo, where I served for four years as councillor for sustainable development at the French embassy, in charge of public and private French-Japanese cooperation.”
Supporting Japan’s Decarbonization Efforts
After his position at the Embassy, Stefan worked one year at the EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation in Tokyo.
“I organised a series of workshops and conferences, gathering in total roughly 100 speakers and 4,000 attendees (the online format caused by Covid-19 helped!), on topics such as green hydrogen, offshore wind, and decarbonization efforts from cities.”
When the EU-funded project ended Stefan joined a private company, MCP Asset Management, to lead a new project aiming at supporting corporate sustainability in Japan.
“We plan to help Japanese companies align with global standards for low-carbon transition, in particular European standards, to accelerate their transformation and stay attractive for investors.”
What attracted Stefan to Japan was initially an interest in the country’s pop culture. He visited Tokyo as a tourist for the first time in 2004, then came to Japan again in 2008 and 2012 to explore other cities like Osaka and Kyoto, and finally decided to try and move there for work.
Lagging Behind
When Stefan arrived in Japan in 2016, he expected to find a very advanced country, fully mobilised for the transition to clean energy, being the time five years after Fukushima and one year after the adoption of the Paris Agreement.
“But just one month after I arrived, I attended an event that made me realise that Japan was not the clean and climate-progressive country that I imagined.”
At the event, supported by the government, Japanese companies were talking about covering the energy demand in developing countries.
“I thought I would hear about massive renewable energy projects. But all speakers talked about one thing: coal power. I was shocked. During the following years, this first impression was confirmed: in many aspects related to sustainability, Japan seemed to be lagging behind Europe, by five to ten years.”
On renewable energy, Stefan explains, the ambition of Japan has been raised after Fukushima, and again this year just before COP6, but it remains much lower than what European countries are aiming at.
“Many observers here, from think tanks like the Renewable Energy Institute to major firms like Sony or Panasonic, ask the government to set higher ambitions. But Japan has not yet taken the leap of faith on that, and stays attached to its old energy system, relying a lot on fossil energy, and hoping to restart nuclear.”
Small Steps Forward
That being said, Stefan believes things have been moving in some specific areas.
Solar photovoltaic, for instance, has been expanding rapidly after Fukushima, and Japan has been working a lot on hydrogen mobility.
“On solar power, Japan is now the third country with the largest installed capacity, after China and the US, and just before Germany. It is also the first in Asia when looking at installed power per capita.”
However, Stefan clarifies, focusing strictly on renewable energy technologies themselves, what’s happening in Japan now is at least partially relying on foreign companies.
“The hydrogen vehicles that Toyota has started to deploy do not use renewable hydrogen so far – Japan is not working as actively as Europe on green hydrogen production. And the once advanced Japanese companies producing solar panels have now been distanced by competitors from other Asian countries.”
Consequently, the energy production technologies on which Japan is still active are gas turbines and what Japanese manufacturers call ‘clean coal’.
“[That] doesn’t really make sense, climate-wise, as coal is the worst source of energy when we look at the CO2 emissions.”
Spurred by Foreign Partnerships
Innovative or ambitious renewable energy projects in Japan actually often mobilize a foreign partner, Stefan explains, often from Europe.
“For example, Japan now has dozens of floating solar plants, installed on ponds or dam reservoirs. In most cases, it’s using the technology of French company Ciel & Terre.”
Another example is the joint-venture established between German renewable energy company Juwi and Japanese independent power supplier Shizen Energy.
“Shizen needed the know-how of a European partner to accelerate its plans in Japan, and the companies have now installed together nearly 70 solar farms across the country.”
The one innovative technology from Japan that Stefan has been hearing about regularly in the last couple of years is perovskite solar cells.
“The inventor, Tsutomu Miyasaka, was the first Japanese scientist to win the Nobel Prize in chemistry, for this invention.”
According to Stefan, it is often said that this technology could drastically change the way we produce electricity from the sun, as perovskite solar cells open the possibility for thin and flexible solar modules, that could be used in a variety of new contexts and purposes, from solar curtains in buildings to powering small devices for the internet of things.
“Many Japanese companies like Toshiba and others are working on it, but it’s not being deployed commercially yet.”
Commercialising Renewable Technologies
The next big step in this direction, Stefan seems to be offshore wind, which the government decided one year ago to accelerate. Construction of the first commercial project started this year, and more should follow.
“But Japan will need floating offshore technologies to harness all the potential of offshore wind, and again on this, Japanese manufacturers are late.”
Because of it, it may be necessary to work with foreign partners. French company Ideol BW, for instance, has a floating offshore wind demonstrator in Kitakyushu, in the south of Japan, supported by Japanese public agency NEDO.
Stefan says he would like Japan to also work more actively on other sources that are massively available locally – geothermal, biomass and recovery energy – but so far, there hasn’t been a lot of political impetus for that.
“I guess it will come soon, once the offshore wind plan is on track. Local governments are also becoming more and more demanding and active on that, and start deploying their own projects.”
But one missing piece of the puzzle here, Stefan says, is the demand from citizens-consumers.
“Climate awareness is not very developed in Japan, compared to many other countries.”
Some companies like Minna Denryoku and Shizen Energy have been created after Fukushima to offer 100% renewable electricity. They have promising potential and they develop innovative approaches – for example, Minna Denryoku uses blockchain to “follow” the electrons and allow consumers to choose their suppliers: you can decide to buy your electricity from a school, from a farm, from a town that you like.
“But so far I don’t think these alternative, innovative power suppliers have met the same level of demand as their counterparts in European countries, like Enercoop in France.”
Japan $10 billion zero-emission path pledge
It is very welcomed that developed countries like Japan pledge financial support to develop countries, Stefan says, both for climate mitigation and for climate adaptation.
“However, we need to make sure that this is not used as an excuse for developed countries to not apply to themselves the transformation that they ask from developing countries.”
According to Stefan, sustainability requires changes (of infrastructures, of business models, of regulations,) but Japan is a rather conservative country, so the government may prefer to export the pressure for changes and keep the domestic system as it is.
“When Japan announced this new pledge for zero-emission projects in developing countries in Asia, some observers asked the question: why doesn’t Japan start with its own zero-emission plan and announce a phase-out of coal power on its own soil? Just before COP26 where coal has been under massive criticisms, Japan released its updated energy plan for 2030 – with still nearly 20% of coal in the targeted power mix.”
There are also growing concerns that Japan could try to export its pollution to developing countries, through various mechanisms, in order to avoid having to make changes at home and escape international pressure on its own policies.
“But if rich countries are not moving away from dirty sources of energy, it’s hard for developing countries to accept that they are asked to do so, even with financial support. We need rich countries to do both: efforts at home, and abroad.”
The Future of Renewables in Japan
Moving forward, Stefan believes Japan has a huge potential to run more on renewables.
In other parts of the world, some small islands are aiming for 100% renewable energy, 100% self-sufficiency in energy, 0% emissions, Stefan explains.
“Japan could experiment similar approaches, starting with its small islands, before expanding to larger, more populated ones where the situation is more complex.”
The small city-island of Iki, in Nagasaki prefecture – recently made famous worldwide as it’s the stage for the expansion of the PS4 samurai-themed game Ghost of Tsushima – is currently working on such a plan.
“This city was the first to declare a climate emergency in Japan, and now aims at being powered only by renewables in the future, both to become more resilient, and to stop contributing to the global phenomenon of climate change that puts such islands in immediate danger.”
Since he started working in Japan, Stefan says he has been hearing a lot, from people supporting nuclear or fossil energy in Japan, saying it is a resource-poor country and therefore has to keep nuclear and fossil fuels as significant sources of energy.
“I’ve always had a hard time understanding this argument. Japan is not poor in resources. It is poor in fossil resources. But it has plenty of sun, wind, geothermal, biomass, and it is literally surrounded by marine energy. It is because Japan is poor in non-renewable that it should accelerate the transition towards the resources that it has!”
Some stakeholders, like municipalities or prefectures, are starting to realize that, Stefan says, and work on more local, circular models, including increasing the use of local sources of energy, that are necessarily renewable.
“What is missing, so far, is a national political will to really mobilize renewable energy as much as possible. Japan is not a country of extreme moves, it often adopts a balanced, slower approach. But with the climate emergency, I’m not sure this approach can deliver the results in time. As international pressure will grow, I think Japan has no other option but to accelerate on renewables, and really embrace the potential it has on its soil.”
In the future, Stefan believes Japan will also be able to import substantial amounts of renewable energy, in the form of liquified hydrogen, if the domestic resources are not sufficient. But in order to do that, the country needs to start investing now in the international renewable hydrogen supply chain.
The market will also naturally push towards broader adoption of renewables in Japan. So far, the cost remains relatively high, but it’s been going down everywhere in the world and is now cheaper than conventional sources in several countries.
“There’s no reason why the same wouldn’t happen in Japan, it’s just a matter of time. When renewables will be cheaper in Japan too, and at the same time the cost of carbon will keep going up through various global mechanisms, it will become extremely difficult for the government and the power companies to keep supporting the old energy production system.”
❓ Want to find out more about the latest tech news in Japan?
🔗 Here is the newsletter’s link section:
The Good 🚗
MHI Group deliver systems for automated valet parking - Japan Today
Kyushu Ichi Fireworks Festival at Huis Ten Bosch returns - Time Out
AI being employed to translate sign language to help deaf - Kyodo
Toshiba's breakup is first split by major Japanese company - Nikkei
Self-driving bullet train put to the test - NHK
Panasonic develops cybersecurity system for cars - Japan Times
Japanese banks, firms to test digital currency - NHS
Honda turns to AI-powered tech to make roads safer - Japan Times
The Bad ☢️
Gundam Cafe chain announces permanent closure - Sora News
Nintendo to reduce Switch production due to chip crunch - Nikkei
Toyota ranked one of worst automakers for emissions - MSN
Car dealer suspected of violating CFC control law - NHK
It's going to get even harder to buy a PlayStation 5 - The Japan Times
AI for hiring on the rise, experts raise concerns - The Asahi Shimbun
Japan's economy shrinks more as supply shortages hit - Reuters
SDF loses contact with reconnaissance drone - NHK
The Quirky ☀️
Monster Hunter VR attraction at Universal Studios Japan - Sora News
Japanese NPO has world’s first full VR general meeting - Grape
Experimental AI lending helping hand to fruit producers - Kyodo
Infected college head develops mask that glows - The Asahi Shimbun
Christmas with interactive exhibit in teamLab Borderless - TimeOut
Kyoto removes power lines to restore traditional charm - TimeOut
HIKKY running world’s largest virtual event, raises ¥6.5 billion - Grape
Docomo develops blade-free drone - Bezinga
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