Employees of Fujifilm Corp., one of Japanese largest photographic companies, and its affiliates succeeded in reducing their household carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 1,075 tons over three months, from July to September 2009, as a result of the company's Ideas for a Cool Earth (ICE) Challenge.

The Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute in Japan announced on September 9, 2009, that it had, for the first time, uncovered the chemical process behind leaf litter decomposing into soil organic matter. The study was conducted jointly with National Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences, using solid-state C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, which is a useful tool for analyzing the chemical structure of organic matter in fallen leaves and soil without any complicated pretreatment.

A large-scale photovoltaic (PV) power system, with a capacity of 1.8 megawatts, began full operational testing on December 3, 2009, in the city of Hokuto, in Yamanashi Prefecture, after being connected to a high-voltage transmission grid of 66 kilovolts -- a first in the country. The project has been under development since fiscal 2006, and is managed jointly by Japan's New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), the city of Hokuto, and NTT Facilities Inc.

In fiscal 2008, a total of 1.216 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) were emitted in Japan. These emissions represent an increase of 6.3 percent from 1990, the base year under the Kyoto Protocol, although they were also a decrease of 6.7% from fiscal 2007 -- the year Japan's emissions hit a record high. It has been argued that the main factor in this decrease was a serious economic downturn. Looking at the country's emissions by sector, those from the industrial sector have decreased by 13% from the 1990 level, whereas emissions from transportation, commercial (services, offices, etc.), and household sectors increased by 8.5%, 41.3 %, and 34.7%, respectively. These results indicate that the commercial and household sectors need to make better efforts to reduce CO2 emissions.

Mitsubishi Estate Co., the owner of Shin-Marunouchi Building, and Idemitsu Kosan Co. announced on December 9, 2009, that they have agreed to meet all the energy demands of the building using renewable energy generated by Idemitsu. This will reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by about 20,000 tons per year. The Shin-Marunouchi Building is a 38-floor skyscraper complex with shops and offices.

Note: 'Rainwater use' is an important agenda item at the World Water Forum.

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Nippon Oil Corp. installed independent solar power systems on its 36-unit company housing condominium complex in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture, and began its operation on December 18, 2009. This type of solar power system was the first of its kind in the Tokyo metropolitan area. A power conditioner developed by the company allows each condo unit to generate and use solar power separately.

A nationwide promotional campaign to curb global warming, called "Challenge 25 Campaign," was officially launched on January 14, 2010, at the Prime Minister's official residence. As a make-over of the previous "Team Minus 6%" campaign, this initiative aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent compared to 1990 levels by 2020.

Having developed a CO2 Visualization System "ene-brain" to automatically analyze the areas of improvement for reducing energy consumption by businesses, Omron Corp. announced that it will begin selling the system in Japan from January 2010. The system supports business in meeting the reporting requirements specified in the amendment of the Act on the Rational Use of Energy (known as the Energy Conservation Law) which enters into effect in April 2010. It also provides necessary data for a businesses to reduce its energy usage by one percent every year (based on the consumption rate), as encouraged by the Japanese government.

Hitachi Ltd. and Toshiba Corp., two major Japanese electronics manufacturers, announced on November 30, 2009, that they each received an order for a mega-solar generation system from Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO). TEPCO, jointly with Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture, is preparing to construct two solar power plants with a total output of about 20,000 kilowatts in the waterfront area of Kawasaki City. The construction work starts in February 2010 and plant operations are scheduled to start in FY 2011. The plants will be the largest-scale photovoltaic power plants in Japan. For details, refer to the JFS article listed below.

In the previous issue of the JFS Newsletter, I sketched out one of the possible scenarios for Japan in ten years, by asking the question, "What will Japan be like in 2020 if we carry on with business as usual?" In this issue, I will introduce another one -- a completely different scenario of Japan that I hope will come true -- a vision of possibility for the nation. This time I ask, "What will Japan be like in 2020 if we do things right?"