Fukushima’s impact on energy in Japan should be viewed in a broader context
In response to our Comment in Nature (1), Cherp and Jewell write that Japan's ambition for renewables was not altered by the Fukushima disaster (2) (see more extensive version on POLET). Although the evidence they present is technically accurate and their point on the decreased role of nuclear is correct, we would like to bring a broader context to the readers’ attention.
Under the 2002 Basic Act on Energy Policy, a Basic Energy Plan is a policy document that sets out the general direction of Japan’s energy policy. It serves as a basis for specific regulations and promotion measures, and should be interpreted as such. One therefore needs to look at individual policy instruments to ascertain whether the government is committed to the policy goals described in the Basic Energy Plan.
Prior to the summer of 2012, the renewable policies (a combination of renewable portfolio standards and a limited FIT scheme) were deemed inadequate by renewable industries and environmentalists alike, and it was this recognition that motivated the introduction of the wider feed-in tariff scheme in July 2012. Also in September 2012, the administration by the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) adopted a higher target of about 30% renewable penetration by 2030,3 though it was never codified into a Basic Energy Plan or a Long-Term Energy Supply and Demand Outlook.
Although the Abe administration of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Komeito since December 2012 ultimately brought the target to the level originally conceived by the previous LDP government, it has retained the FIT scheme.
Authors
Masahiro Sugiyama: Assistant Professor, Policy Alternatives Research Institute (PARI), the University of Tokyo; Email: masahiro_sugiyama@alum.mit.edu
Ichiro Sakata: Director, Policy Alternatives Research Institute, and Professor, Graduate School of Engineering, the University of Tokyo
Hideaki Shiroyama: Professor, Graduate Schools of Law and Politics, the University of Tokyo
Hisashi Yoshikawa: Project Professor, Graduate School of Public Policy and Policy Alternatives Research Institute, the University of Tokyo
Taketoshi Taniguchi: Professor, Policy Alternatives Research Institute, the University of Tokyo.
References
Masahiro Sugiyama, Ichiro Sakata, Hideaki Shiroyama, Hisashi Yoshikawa& Taketoshi Taniguchi (2016) Research management: Five years on from Fukushima. Nature, 531, 29-31, doi: 10.1038/531029a
Aleh Cherp & Jessica Jewell (2016) Energy policy: Renewables targeted before Fukushima. Nature, 533, 36, doi:10.1038/533036b
Energy and Environment Council (2012) Innovative Strategy for Energy and the Environment (accessed May 25, 2016) (in Japanese)