Japan boosting investments in power industry

Will invest US$299 billion over 10 years.

This massive investment represents a 50% increase from levels in the past 10 years. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe promised to boost investment in a bid to revive Japan’s economy.

In addition, Japan will also accelerate investments in wind, geothermal and other renewable sources by drastically speeding up environmental assessment processes.

Japan will help innovations in the power businesses by fully liberalizing and separating distribution and transmission operations from generation. The government wants to pass the power reforms bill, which has been submitted to parliament, by all possible means.

A government advisory panel in February recommended measures to restructure the power industry, including spinning off distribution networks, a step toward ending the power companies’ monopoly.

Japan’s 10 regional power companies dominate electricity generation, transmission and distribution.