On the surface, a natural fallout of the energy crisis triggered by the Iran war could see resource-poor Japan pivot to renewable energy in order to reduce its heavy dependence on oil from the Middle East.
But two months since the start of the war, a sea change to energy policy looks like a long shot.
In recent months, Japan has stepped up regulations against megasolar projects, which have proven unpopular in many corners of the country due to the destruction of the natural environment and lack of coordination with neighboring communities. Japan also announced it will stop offering subsidies for newly installed industrial-use solar panels from April 2027, while submitting a bill in the current parliament session to mandate the recycling of old panels.
While some of these government measures may be justified to weed out unscrupulous operators, some analysts and civil society advocates say Japan can do more to promote the proper adoption of solar.
¡°Amid this Iran crisis and surges in oil prices, you¡¯d expect people to seize it as an opportunity to reassess things or rethink their approach,¡± Kimiko Hirata, executive director of independent think tank Climate Integrate, told a news briefing last month. ¡°But overall, the momentum to shift to renewables is still quite weak in Japan.¡±
Hirata notes that Japan has long perceived renewable energy as unreliable, costly and overly dependent on China. Recent geopolitical tensions and the environmental impact of large-scale solar projects have further entrenched this view domestically, despite recent moves by other countries in Asia, such as South Korea and the Philippines, to rapidly boost solar capacity to protect their consumers against global price movements.
In its latest analysis of the government¡¯s energy-related spending, the think tank said Japan allocated 3.3% of its national budget on climate and energy measures for fiscal 2026, out of which renewables accounted for just 3%. By contrast, the portion of that outlay for energy-conserving measures made up 52%, though most of that is being saved for spending related to artificial intelligence and semiconductors. Spending on fossil fuels and nuclear power (including nuclear fusion) followed, at 21% and 10%, respectively.
For advocates of renewable power, however, there is reason for cautious optimism. Some businesses have demonstrated how well-executed renewable energy projects ¡ª especially when it comes to rooftop solar and agrivoltaics (the dual use of land for agriculture and solar energy generation) ¡ª can reduce energy costs for consumers and help support community well-being.
Going off-grid
Seiya Miyake, a former nuclear engineer at Kansai Electric Power Co., is the CEO of the Renewable Energy Promotion Organization, an ¡°aggregator¡± that bundles small renewable energy producers and trades the energy they produce with regional utility companies.
A year and a half ago, he set up a group company called Repo Storage, based on his experience installing do-it-yourself solar power systems in his parents¡¯ home in Mie Prefecture and for his new home in Chiba Prefecture. He bought solar panels and batteries online from China?and was surprised at how cheap they were compared with the systems being sold in Japan. While some Chinese solar panels are controversial due to ties to forced labor by the Uyghur minority group in the Xinjiang region, Miyake says his company uses products made in Shenzhen that are free from such human rights concerns.
In Japan, the initial cost for installing rooftop solar power systems remains high, costing about ?3.3 million to produce 10 kilowatt-hours, he says, noting that it takes about 20 years for the average home (outside heavily subsidized Tokyo) to break even on solar installations, assuming that the household saves about ?170,000 per year by consuming 70% of the energy produced and sells the remaining 30% to the grid.
To sell electricity to the grid, people need to buy panels and batteries from domestically certified manufacturers. Also, while some municipalities offer subsidies for home-based solar systems, the application process can take up to a year. In some cities, applicants must win a lottery to be eligible.
Miyake, on the other hand, markets what he dubs ¡°the Miyake method,¡± whereby people harvest energy only for their home-based consumption and not for selling, just like they harvest vegetables from their gardens.
¡°If you don¡¯t connect to the grid and don¡¯t apply for subsidies, you can use internationally certified high-quality models,¡± he says. ¡°You can also set the system up quickly and cheaply.¡±
In a scenario where users buy units from Repo Storage and install panels with a capacity of 7 kW, along with batteries capable of storing 16kWh, both imported from abroad, the initial cost is estimated at ?2 million. While prices of foreign models have been rising since the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, people should still be able to recover installation costs within 10 years, he says.
The firm has applied for a patent for a control technology that would allow off-grid homes to buy power from utility companies in case of bad weather or other emergencies. In such situations, users can automatically get connected to the grid and avoid blackouts, he says.
The firm, which has sold about 30 units to individuals around the country so far, won an award last December in a business pitch contest organized by the Japan Climate Leaders Partnership, a coalition of 230 companies committed to climate action.
¡°With the spread of EV batteries, the production cost of lithium-ion batteries (globally) has come down to one-fifth of what it used to be 10 years ago,¡± he says, suggesting more people can take advantage of price falls amid rising energy prices. ¡°But many people in Japan haven¡¯t benefited from it.¡±
Solar sharing for sustainability
Chiba Prefecture-based Citizens Energy Chiba Co., known by its nickname Min-ene (derived from its Japanese name, Shimin Enerugi Chiba), and its group company Terra, are a major force in the field of solar sharing, known as agrivoltaics, in which farmers grow crops under solar panels.
Originally set up in 2014 by nine local environmentally conscious residents who each put up ?100,000 as capital, Min-ene has grown into a firm with capital holdings of ?500 million. The company¡¯s first solar farm was manually built using scaffolding pipes, and it raised funds by soliciting citizens to become owners of the panels.
While the number of permits issued for agrivoltaic farms in Japan has grown to a total of 6,137 as of March 2024, Min-ene differentiates itself from many other farms by adopting a method developed by retired engineer Akira Nagashima.
In 2004, long before agrivoltaics took off in Japan, Nagashima invented the idea of installing rows of solar panels on farmland at certain intervals so that just around 30% of sunlight would be blocked.
The panels are raised about 3 meters off the ground so that agricultural machinery can freely operate underneath. Min-ene¡¯s panels are long and narrow, with twice as much space between them to allow wind and sun through. The panels are tilted at angles of 25 and 30 degrees, depending on their orientation, according to Tomomitsu Miyashita, a senior managing director of Min-ene.
This design is based on Nagashima¡¯s finding that there¡¯s a saturation point for the amount of light needed to promote photosynthesis, and that plants can actually grow better with moderate shade. Nagashima, who made this patented farming method public so other people could freely use it, later built a test field in Ichihara, Chiba Prefecture.
¡°Solar sharing was invented to support farmers so they can continue farming (without going bankrupt),¡± Miyashita says.
Min-ene now operates 31 solar farms, growing barley and soy beans under rows of panels in the city of Sosa in?Chiba Prefecture?mostly on what used to be idle or abandoned farmland. Over the last four years, the company has received more than 2,100 visitors who are interested in learning about their methodology, Miyashita says.
Miyashita adds that Min-ene is rooted in Sosa and is committed to sharing its profits with the local community. It has set up two agricultural corporations to which it provides subsidies for the farming work in proportion to the size of the fields. It has also come up with a system for all the area¡¯s energy producers, including Min-ene, to chip in a total of ?4 million to ?4.5 million per year to a local fund that supports community projects. Among the projects are eco-friendly endeavors such as cleaning up abandoned farmland filled with illegally dumped waste and donating computer monitors to a local elementary school.
Terra, however, was founded with an eye on scaling up solar sharing worldwide, and it is engaged in not only power generation, but also consulting and product development. Mitsuhiro Higashi, an owner of an organic vegetable store turned-president of Min-ene, founded Terra in 2021, and he is keen to promote solar sharing in parts of the world where there¡¯s a dire energy shortage.
In 2024, Terra and Sekisui Chemical launched Japan¡¯s first joint field test of film-type perovskite solar cells in solar sharing in Sosa. Sekisui Chemical is a front-runner in the development of perovskite panels, a Japan-born technology that is being touted as a way to help the country meet its renewable energy goals and gain a competitive edge over China, which dominates the global solar market.
Perovskite panels could be particularly key for Japan, where land is limited, because they are light and bendable and therefore can be placed on curved surfaces and places where conventional silicon-based panels cannot be installed. They can also capture sunlight from wider angles than silicon panels, though industry experts say that cost and durability challenges need to be addressed for them to become commercially viable.
The firms are testing installation methods, measuring power generation efficiency and assessing impacts on crop growth. They say they plan to use the results to scale deployment nationwide, including on idle or abandoned farmland, with the overarching goal of contributing to decarbonization efforts.
In addition, Terra is spearheading projects to expand solar sharing abroad, aiming to support sustainable development in the Global South. One initiative focuses on revitalizing the Ethiopian city of Mekelle, where over 200,000 internally displaced people have settled.
Higashi says he envisions providing energy, food and jobs there by using the energy generated from solar sharing to power machines that extract water from the air, enabling crop production.
While the project sounds undeniably ambitious, Higashi¡¯s proposal won a business idea contest focused on refugee issues that was held by the Japan International Cooperation Agency at the Osaka Expo last August. As one of four winners in the contest, Higashi will have an opportunity to tour the city and receive support from business consultants. He plans to make several trips to Mekelle this year and aims to establish two pilot facilities by next March.
¡°We picked Ethiopia as a starting point because it presents the toughest challenges,¡± Higashi says. ¡°The country has a really tragic history, including sexual violence against women. So if we can make it work there, we can apply the model across Africa, be it Tanzania, Kenya or Uganda.¡±
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