Parul Bakshi

Japan has historically been a major player within the Indo-Pacific region due to its rapid post-war economic expansion, technological advancement, massive overseas development aid as well as its cultural outreach. As the Indo-Pacific today is marred with various challenges in the form of maritime and energy security, border conflicts, booming population, developing economies, and rising carbon emissions, among others. The region requires a multipolar balance of power wherein nations can lead by example and concerted action towards creating a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable future for an extensively dynamic Indo-Pacific. This paper focuses on one of the critical variables of the region, i.e., the energy sector, and attempts to place Japan’s role and contribution to the region’s ongoing energy transitions. The extent and means through which Japan can propel itself and the region towards a just transition with the help of regional and international cooperation have been analysed.

With Japan’s thrust towards a more balanced energy mix, it has been undergoing what can be termed as an energy transition. While the Fukushima Disaster has played a crucial role in this transition, the Paris Agreement has further acted as an impetus for the same. However, since 2012 Japan was under the political leadership of Shinzo Abe, who today is the longest-serving Prime Minister of Japan until Yoshihide Suga took over the prime ministership recently. Under Abe’s guidance, Japan’s energy policy has been a mixed bag with a few hits and some major misses. Now, as Japan welcomes its new Prime Minister Suga, it falls upon him to lead Japan on a path of just transition. One which balances its energy and economic goals and pays heed to the necessity of building a climate-friendly sustainable model. This paper maps and evaluates the Abe administration’s broad energy policy measures and attempts to foresee the changes Suga administration can introduce to the ongoing energy transition o...

The paper provides a historical overview of the political and social discourses on nuclear energy in Japan. It briefly traces the evolution of the idea of nuclear energy as „dream energy‟ since post war era. Furthermore, based on the contemporary discourses and the growing social and political pressures of the anti-nuclear movements, the paper indicates a trend towards an anti-nuclear crusade and envisages Japan‟s future nuclear power plan. It has been argued that political and economic factors may not make it favorable for Japan to take a strong stand against the use of nuclear energy. This is due to the massive dependence of Japanese industries as well as usage by domestic units of nuclear power. Most likely the immediate future would hold Japan in a position where it tries to balance its growing need for energy on one hand and its strong public stance against the use of nuclear reactors.

In the aftermath of the economic crisis of 1991, the need for urgent economic reforms became imperative, to restore confidence in India and rebuild the economy. This was met by extensive reform measures, initiated by the then Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao and the then Finance Minister Manmohan Singh. While the economy started to reshape itself, further steps were taken, one of which came to be known as the "Look East Policy" or LEP. With this policy, India set on path towards greater economic interaction with Eastern and Southeast Asian countries.The relationship between the East and the Indian subcontinent is deep rooted and it can be traced back to many centuries. However, there is no doubt that these relationships have gained immense importance in the age of globalisation wherein countries and regions are not only intertwined and interdependent but also interconnected to such a large extent that they influence every aspect of the nation.A major event, which gave a t...

Japan has historically been a major player within the Indo-Pacific region due to its rapid post-war economic expansion, technological advancement, massive overseas development aid as well as its cultural outreach. As the Indo-Pacific today is marred with various challenges in the form of maritime and energy security, border conflicts, booming population, developing economies, and rising carbon emissions, among others. The region requires a multipolar balance of power wherein nations can lead by example and concerted action towards creating a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable future for an extensively dynamic Indo-Pacific. This paper focuses on one of the critical variables of the region, i.e., the energy sector, and attempts to place Japan’s role and contribution to the region’s ongoing energy transitions. The extent and means through which Japan can propel itself and the region towards a just transition with the help of regional and international cooperation have been analysed.

With Japan’s thrust towards a more balanced energy mix, it has been undergoing what can be termed as an energy transition. While the Fukushima Disaster has played a crucial role in this transition, the Paris Agreement has further acted as an impetus for the same. However, since 2012 Japan was under the political leadership of Shinzo Abe, who today is the longest-serving Prime Minister of Japan until Yoshihide Suga took over the prime ministership recently. Under Abe’s guidance, Japan’s energy policy has been a mixed bag with a few hits and some major misses. Now, as Japan welcomes its new Prime Minister Suga, it falls upon him to lead Japan on a path of just transition. One which balances its energy and economic goals and pays heed to the necessity of building a climate-friendly sustainable model. This paper maps and evaluates the Abe administration’s broad energy policy measures and attempts to foresee the changes Suga administration can introduce to the ongoing energy transition of Japan. It also highlights the areas within the energy sector, which might require the focus of PM Suga to enable Japan to take advantage of the opportunity of making Japan a part of global green leadership.

This paper uses Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) as submitted by India to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as a research tool to assess the success of India’s path towards renewable energy. It maps the blueprint India has been following to achieve its NDCs and traces the shortcomings and challenges for the same. This analysis has then been compared with Japan’s evolution of Energy Policy, with specific emphasis on post Fukushima disaster energy transition, and in lieu of Japan’s own NDCs. By using a comparative analysis framework, it has been shown how and in which broad policy areas there emerges a mutual scope for cooperation between the two countries, which are not only on the same path of diversifying their energy mix but are also looking at the role of green leadership in future in the Asian region as well as globally.

The paper provides a historical overview of the political and social discourses on nuclear energy in Japan. It briefly traces the evolution of the idea of nuclear energy as ‘dream energy’ since post war era. Furthermore, based on the contemporary
discourses and the growing social and political pressures of the anti-nuclear movements, the paper indicates a trend towards an anti-nuclear crusade and envisages Japan’s future nuclear power plan. It has been argued that political and economic factors may not make it favorable for Japan to take a strong stand against the use of nuclear energy. This is due to the massive dependence of Japanese industries as well as usage by domestic units of nuclear power. Most likely the immediate future would hold Japan in a position where it tries to balance its growing need for energy on one hand and its strong public stance against the use of nuclear reactors.