On May 26th before dawn in Japan time, Prime Minister Naoto Kan attended the event in Paris that celebrated the 50th anniversary of the establishment of Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, where he talked about Japan's energy policy. He announced he would increase the share of reusable energy in an entire output from current 9% "to 20% by as early as possible in the 2020's."
Kan emphasized that he aims to reduce the cost of power generation to one third of the current level by 2020 and to one sixth by 2030. He has indicated his intention to expand the usage of reusable energy such as solar and wind power, in response to the event at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, but this is the first time that he referred to specific numbers. The timing of the implementation presented this time is accelerated by about a decade compared with that of the Basic Energy Plan the government adopted in June last year. By announcing at an international meeting, Kan's words are deemed as de facto public pledge.
http://www.asahi.com/eco/TKY201105250658.html
Asahi Shimbun, May 26, 2011
Translated by Yuka Yamashita
