Past Events

Japan’s Energy Sector: Changes and Innovations for Sustainability

The Silicon Valley Japan Platform hosted the Benkyokai webinar, “Japan’s Energy Sector: Changes and Innovations for Sustainability”.  The speakers provided an overview of the Japanese energy sector including recent changes and innovations.  The monopoly power of Japan’s ten electric utilities and the scale/costs of sunk investments in fossil-fuel and nuclear facilities for generating and distributing electricity have posed high barriers to the widespread adoption of renewable energy (measurably higher than in the United States).  However, several renewable energy companies such as Renova and Trende are working to expand the share of renewable energy in Japan with innovative new technologies and business models.

This SVJP Benkyokai featured Neil Miyabe, Executive Vice President of Renova, Inc., a Japan-based renewable developer with approximately 1.7GW portfolio in operation, under construction or under development and Jeffrey Char, Co-Founder and Chairman of TRENDE, Inc., an online renewable energy retailer accelerating the widespread adoption of solar power in Japan.  Yoshiaki Fujimori, Senior Executive Advisor of CVC Japan and Chairman of Oracle Japan, joined as commentator and Greg Tanaka, CEO and Founder of Percolata acted as moderator.

Two recommended energy articles were shared as preparation material for the event: