Japan Press Weekly

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2012 June 13 - 19 [ENVIRONMENT]

Renewable energy creates healthy economy: smaller business owners

Akahata “current” column

“The 4th Revolution,” a German documentary film about energy transition from fossil fuels to solar, wind, hydrogen and other sources of renewable energy, will again tour throughout Japan.

The tour is co-sponsored by the film’s distributor and the “Network of Business Leaders and Entrepreneurs for a Sustainable Business and Energy Future,” a group of small- and medium-sized business owners launched in March this year. They plan to show the film at 30 locations throughout the nation, starting on June 16 in Hikone City, Shiga Prefecture.

At a press conference, Network leader Suzuki Teisuke, president of Suzuhiro Kamaboko Co. in Kanagawa Pref., said that the film could be an opportunity for many people to regard energy as a personal issue and reconsider the way they consume electricity in their daily lives.

The network calls for the development of renewable energy and energy self-sufficiency in each locality.

It also stresses the need to change Japan’s economy. Suzuki said at the press conference, “Renewable energy leads to the economic independence of local areas because it increases job opportunities for local businesses. By increasing local jobs, we’d like to pave the way for a change in the centralized economic system.”

He said that his company last summer reduced electricity consumption by 25% from the previous year.

The network’s endeavor suggests that business owners are not only those who are pushing the government to restart offline nuclear reactors by claiming that corporations will suffer electric shortages and threatening to relocate their plants outside Japan.