July 7, 2022

Taking advantage of possible energy shortages, the ruling Liberal Democratic and Komei parties and their supplementary force, the “Nippon Ishin no Kai” party and the Democratic Party for the People, are voicing the need to reactivate offline nuclear power plants.

However, the underlying cause of the recent power crisis is the LDP-Komei government’s energy policy sticking to nuclear and coal-fired thermal power generation and disregarding the promotion of energy-saving measures and the use of renewables.

In 2020, the share of renewables in the total output of electricity in Japan stood at 22%. On the other hand, energy generation by renewable sources accounted for 48% in Germany, 43% in the U.K., and 53% in California. In addition, compared to Japan’s target of increasing the solar and wind share to 36-38% of total electricity production by 2030, Germany’s is set at 65% and California’s 60%. Japan lags far behind the world in terms of shifting to renewable energy.

Nevertheless, Prime Minister Kishida designates nuclear power as a base-load power source by saying that the government has the responsibility to provide a stable supply of inexpensive energy.

The cost for solar and wind power generating systems have become lower than that for nuclear power generation. It is unacceptable to neglect renewables. Furthermore, amid the surge in power bills stemming from the global inflation of natural resource prices and the weak yen due to the “Abenomics” economic policy, the need is to promote renewables in order to support people’s livelihoods.

The realization of the use of domestic renewables is a key in obtaining a stable energy supply.

The Japanese Communist Party in its proposal for ways to address the climate crisis sets a goal to reduce CO2 emissions by up to 60% by 2030, lower energy consumption by 40% through energy-saving measures, and increase the share of renewables in the total electricity supply to 50%. The JCP points out that this proposal if implemented will boost Japan’s GDP by 205 trillion yen and create 2.54 million new jobs.

Past related article:
> JCP publishes strategy to tackle climate crisis as part of platform for forthcoming general election [September 2, 2021]