Energy Security In Japan

For a country already uneasy about energy security, the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, which caused a nuclear catastrophe at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, turned pre-existing Japanese concern about the availability of energy into outright anxiety. The subsequent closure of many nuclear reactors meant Japan needed to replace lost power quickly and so had no choice but to secure additional fossil fuels, undermining Japanese diversification policy and increasing global and regional competition for energy. This switch has been at a cost to the already weak Japanese economy whilst the increase in fossil fuel consumption has caused a significant increase in greenhouse gas emissions. In this book Vlado Vivoda examines the drastically changed environment following the disaster in order to analyse Japan’s energy security challenges and evaluate Tokyo’s energy policy options. Looking at how the disaster exacerbated Japan’s existing energy security challenges, Vivoda considers the best policy options for Japan to enhance national energy security in the future, exploring the main impediments to change and how they might be overcome.

Bringing together renewable energy and energy security, this book covers both the politics and political economy of renewables and energy security and analyzes renewable technologies in diverse and highly topical countries: Japan, China and Northern Europe.

Is the quest for true energy security a fool’s errand? In recent years, the efforts of nations to promote energy security have been hotly debated. Fuels Paradise examines how five major developed democracies—Britain, France, Germany, Japan, and the United States—have sought to enhance their energy security since the oil shocks of the 1970s and in response to the more diverse set of challenges of the early twenty-first century. Drawing on a vast range of primary and secondary sources, John S. Duffield explains the actions taken—and not taken—by these countries to address their energy security concerns. Throughout the book, Duffield argues that state strength and policy legacies are essential for understanding national responses to energy insecurity. In addition to identifying feasible energy policies and the constraints faced by policy makers, he evaluates the prospects for international cooperation to promote energy security and considers the implications of recent advances in the production and distribution of energy, particularly the fracking revolution. An ambitious cross-national and longitudinal study grounded in promising theories of national behavior, Fuels Paradise will contribute substantially to broader debates about the determinants of state action and public policy.

Under the contraction of global energy supply brought on by geopolitical situation, this timely book addresses how resource-scarce developing countries respond to challenges in energy security. In particular, for countries underpinning efforts for an autonomous supply of energy, either oil/natural gas, nuclear power or renewable energy, this book revisits the evolution of overseas energy investment of two industrial giants in East Asia, Korea and Japan. It will provide meaningful lessons of how the state sets up policies and navigates political procedures for energy security. While a historical case study, it also offers its readers new insight into the international energy market by taking the stark déjà vu in its repetitive nature and putting it into context. The book provides an in-depth study highlighting the differences in political systems which led to contrasting outcomes. The one with a small number of veto players succeeded in establishing and expanding state-owned oil companies while producing policy inconsistency at the same time and vice versa. This comprehensive review of East Asian politics will add value to East Asian Studies by presenting a new approach through a universal theory rather than cultural uniqueness. As a readable case study on energy security, this book will be an essential reference for scholars, policymakers, industry insiders and citizens who are interested in how nations respond to historic challenges in a political and international context.

Papers presented at the International Conference on "Energy security in South Asia plus: Relevance of Japanese Experience", organized by Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies in association with Japan Foundation; held at Dhaka, during October 28-29, 2015.

This book explores an ongoing puzzle: why don’t catastrophic events, such as oil shocks and nuclear meltdowns, always trigger transitions away from the energy technologies involved? Jennifer F. Sklarew examines how two key factors – shocks and stakeholder relationships - combine to influence energy system transitions, applying a case study of Japan’s trajectory from the time of the 1970s oil crises through the period following the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. Examining the role of diverse stakeholders’ resilience priorities, she focuses on how changes in stakeholder cooperation and clout respond to and are affected by these shocks, and how this combination of shocks and relationship changes shapes energy policies and policymaking. From Japan’s narrative, the book derives unique and universal lessons for cooperation on innovation and energy system resilience applicable to communities and nations around the globe, including implications for transitions in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The book also places energy system resilience and innovation in the broader context of the food-energy-water-climate nexus. Building Resilient Energy Systems: Lessons from Japan will appeal to all levels of readers with an interest in energy policy, energy technologies and energy transitions: experts and specialists; academics and students; practitioners and policymakers.

In this book, leading experts from seven countries-- Japan, Russia, China, the United States, South Korea, Taiwan, and Malaysia-- assess security concerns over East Asian energy imports, particularly from the Middle East.