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    Japan's Tipping Point: Crucial Choices in the Post-Fukushima World
    Japan's Tipping Point: Crucial Choices in the Post-Fukushima World
    Japan's Tipping Point: Crucial Choices in the Post-Fukushima World
    Ebook142 pages3 hours

    Japan's Tipping Point: Crucial Choices in the Post-Fukushima World

    By Mark Pendergrast

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    About this ebook

    JAPAN'S TIPPING POINT is a small book on a huge topic. In the post-Fukushima era, Japan is the "canary in the coal mine" for the rest of the world. Can Japan radically shift its energy policy, become greener, more self-sufficient, and avoid catastrophic impacts on the climate? Mark Pendergrast arrived in Japan exactly two months after the Fukushima meltdown. This book is his eye-opening account of his trip and his alarming conclusions.

    Japan is at a crucial tipping point. A developed country that must import all of its fossil fuel, it can no longer rely on nuclear power, following the massive earthquake/tsunami/nuclear disaster of March 11, 2011. Critically acclaimed nonfiction writer Mark Pendergrast went to Japan to investigate Japan's renewable energy, Eco-Model Cities, food policy, recycling, and energy conservation, expecting to find innovative, cutting edge programs.

    He discovered that he had been naive. The Japanese boast of their eco-services for eco-products in eco-cities. Yet they rely primarily on imported fossil fuel and nuclear power, live in energy-wasteful homes, and import 60% of their food. That may be changing in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Maybe. But as Pendergrast documents, Japan lags far behind Europe, the United States, and even (in some respects) China in terms of renewable energy efforts. And Japan is mired in bureaucracy, political in-fighting, indecision, puffery, public apathy, and cultural attitudes that make rapid change difficult.

    Yet Japan is also one of the most beautiful countries in the world, with friendly, resilient people who can, when motivated, pull together to accomplish incredible things.

    As an island nation, Japan offers a microcosmic look at the problems facing the rest of the globe. And as Japan tips, so may the world.

    Mark Pendergrast, the author of books such as For God, Country and Coca-Cola, Uncommon Grounds, and Inside the Outbreaks, entertains as he enlightens. As he wrote in Japan's Tipping Point: "The rest of this account might seem a strange combination of critical analysis, travelogue, absurdist non-fiction, and call to action. It might be called 'Mark’s Adventures in Japanland: Or, Apocalyptic Visions in a Noodle Shop.'"

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMark Pendergrast
    Release dateSep 19, 2011
    ISBN9781466068384
    Japan's Tipping Point: Crucial Choices in the Post-Fukushima World

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      Book preview

      Japan's Tipping Point - Mark Pendergrast

      Japan’s Tipping Point

      Crucial Choices in the Post-Fukushima World

      by

      Mark Pendergrast

      Copyright 2011 Mark Pendergrast

      Published by Nature’s Face Publications at Smashwords

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission from the copyright holders.

      ISBN 978-1-4660-6838-4

      Cover design: Rita Toews

      eBook formatting: Maureen Cutajar

      For information on books by Mark Pendergrast, or to contact him, visit www.markpendergrast.com.

      Dedicated to Chiaki Kitada,

      who pretends to be a Dragon Lady

      and without whom this book

      would not have been possible

      Table of Contents

      A Stranger in a Strange Land

      Tetsunari Iida's Vision

      Politics, Power, and Puffery, Japanese-Style

      Off to Kitakyushu and the Former Sea of Death

      Eco-Town on a Slag Heap

      Yusuhara: The Japanese Tibet of Tibet

      The Matsumoto Farm

      Yusuhara’s Renewables

      Do You Kyoto?

      Endangered Machiya

      Masaaki Naito’s Critique

      The Toyota Way

      Yokohama’s Big Plans

      Tokyo’s Super Eco Town

      Solar PV Panels, the Only Renewable Energy Everyone Likes

      Solar Hot Water: A Besmirched Technology

      Geothermal: Potential Unrealized

      Geo-heat Can Be Used Anywhere

      The Winds of Japan

      Taking Advantage of All That Water

      Biomass: Getting Energy from Plants

      The Machiya With the Double-Glazed Windows

      Travel, Community, and Tramlines

      Japanese Camouflage

      Far-Out Solutions, Rule-Bound Responses

      A Sense of Irony

      A New Japan?

      Notes

      Bibliographic Note

      About the Author

      Photographs

      (all photos taken by Mark Pendergrast except those in which he appears)

      Cover: Woman planting rice in Yusuhara

      Wedding at Meiji Shrine

      Original Nippon Steel plant

      Osamu Tezin, volunteer at Environment Museum

      Wind turbines on Kitakyushu's landfill island

      Mark Pendergrast riding hydrogen bicycle

      Electric bicycles under solar panels

      Tunnel on Shikoku

      Kagura demon in Yusuhara

      Yusuhara River with swimming area

      Town of Yusuhara, tucked into mountain valley

      Jiro Matsumoto

      Ryoe and Jiro Matsumoto

      Turbine in white building

      River below dam, choked with shrubs

      Wood pellet plant

      Compost made in Yusuhara from human excrement

      Therapy Trail

      Washi wallpaper with ferns

      Torii gate and steps leading to Wadatsumi Shrine

      Boats at Wadatsumi Shrine

      Steps up through torii gates at Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine

      A plugged in Mitsubishi iMiEV

      Machiya houses in Kyoto

      Judith Clancy's renovated traditional home

      Toyota's hydrogen car

      Little girl in park studying her bug

      "I ought really not to say a word about Japan, I suppose, with only six weeks of scurrying to and fro in it."

      -- Harry A. Franck, Glimpses of Japan and Formosa, 1924

      Japanese trains run to the minute, and the country's businesses pride themselves on energy-efficiency. The Japanese boast of their eco-services for eco-products in eco-cities. Yet they rely primarily on imported fossil fuel and nuclear power, live in energy-wasteful homes, and import 60% of their food. That may be changing in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Maybe. Japan is at a crucial tipping point. As an island nation, it offers a microcosmic look at the problems facing the rest of the globe. And as Japan tips, so may the world.

      I landed at Tokyo’s Narita Airport on May 11, 2011, exactly two months after the magnitude 9.0 Great Eastern Japan Earthquake triggered a devastating tsunami wave that killed an estimated 20,500 people on the coast of northeastern Japan’s Tohoku region and left a swath of destruction up to six miles inland. That zone included the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, where the loss of electric power led to a full meltdown of three out of six reactors.

      In the same way that we now refer to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon of September 11, 2001, simply as 9/11, the Japanese shorthand for March 11, 2011, the day of their triple disaster, is 3/11. I had purchased my airplane tickets for Japan before 3/11. Until mid-April, the U. S. State Department was advising against travel to Japan, and many people were fleeing the country. But by May 1, the situation seemed to have stabilized. Tokyo water and food were declared safe. I had already lined up interviews. And besides, what an incredible time to be researching renewable energy in Japan!

      I had been awarded an Abe Fellowship for Journalists, an annual grant given to selected writers who then spend six weeks in Japan. It is administered by the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), based in New York City, but with a small branch office in Tokyo. [1]

      When I learned about the program in the summer of 2010, I was working on a book proposal called 2084 (a sly reference to Orwell’s 1984), in which I would examine the likely impact of climate change, fossil fuel depletion, and global population growth. What kind of world would our grandchildren inhabit in 2084? So I was deeply immersed in studying renewable energy options.

      Hmm, I thought, as I held the Abe pamphlet. Japan imports virtually all of its fossil fuel. It’s a technologically sophisticated country. So the Japanese must be doing some innovative things with renewable energy. I googled a bit, and within 15 minutes I had discovered the Eco-Model Cities program, begun in 2008. Thirteen Japanese cities had been designated as Eco-Model Cities, and they were using various renewable strategies, including solar panels, micro-hydro generators, wind turbines, electric vehicles, hydrogen power, biodiesel, wood pellets, and geothermal systems. Perfect.

      I quickly threw together an application. I figured I would spend the first week in Tokyo, interviewing government officials, academic experts, and renewable advocates, then would visit four cities in four weeks, return to Tokyo for a wrap-up week, and fly home. The four locations I picked ranged from a big industrial seacoast city to a remote mountain village. The grant program suggested that I affiliate with a Japanese organization, so on the Internet I found a likely-sounding institute in Tokyo and emailed its executive director, Tetsunari Iida. Fortunately, he knew English, and he emailed back on August 7, 2010: You are welcome to ISEP, Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies, that is top leading independent institute in Japan working on sustainable energy pathway from fossil and nuclear energy. Let me know what you expect us to support. Best regards, Tetsu.

      So I applied for the grant, not really knowing much about what I was getting into. And to my great surprise, I got it. I asked Tetsu Iida if I might interview him and perhaps set up my laptop on a desk at the ISEP offices. Sure, no problem.

      Then came 3/11. From my home in Vermont, I watched the unfolding tragedy with sympathy and horror. Then, after fretting about whether to go or not, off I flew….

      The rest of this account might seem a strange combination of critical analysis, travelogue, absurdist non-fiction, and call to action. It might be called Mark’s Adventures in Japanland: Or, Apocalyptic Visions in a Noodle Shop. It turned out that I was incredibly naïve about the Japanese situation. I soon learned that Japan lagged far behind Europe, the United States, and even (in some respects) China in terms of renewable energy efforts. Although there is enormous potential for geothermal, wind, and biomass, it has not been utilized. When I arrived in Japan, there was only a federal subsidy for solar photovoltaic panels on residential homes, reinstated in 2009 after an ill-planned suspension. Even solar hot water – a venerable, proven technology – is not popular. And Japan is mired in bureaucracy, political in-fighting, indecision, puffery, public apathy, and cultural attitudes that make rapid change difficult.

      Yet Japan is also one of the most beautiful countries in the world, with friendly, resilient people who can, when motivated, pull together to accomplish incredible things. I happened to land there at a crucial time for Japan, when the country has an opportunity to rethink its energy policy and entire future. It could show the way to create an ecologically sustainable world. In a way, Japan is the proverbial canary in the coal mine. As an industrialized island country, it is facing the same issues as the rest of the globe, only sooner and more urgently.

      In 2010, Japan’s total energy consumption derived primarily from imported fossil fuels: 45% oil, 19% coal, and 14% natural gas. Nuclear power accounted for 15% and renewable energy 7%. Almost all of that small renewable share came from large hydro dams built a half century ago. In 2010, the Japanese government announced plans to build 14 more nuclear reactors to boost the country’s nuclear share of electrical generation to 50%.

      Now that plan has been scrapped. In addition to the Fukushima installations,

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