ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the evolutions of renewable energy policy in Japan, sector organization and supply-demand structure, and discusses major challenges. These include institutional bias towards solar power, the potential of the new feed-in-tariff (FIT) and grassroots level support for renewable energy post-Fukushima to drive a major penetration of renewable energy in the future and various structural issues pertaining to various renewable energy sources that may inhibit their growth in Japan's energy mix. Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) promotes renewable energy in Japan, assisted by other government agencies such as the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, the Institute of Applied Energy and the reformed and renamed New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO). Structural economic change, like the rise of renewable, typically leads to resistance from the existing vested interest structure, which feels it stands to lose from the rise of new industries.
