The Chubu region, which boasts more hours of sunlight than average in Japan, is increasingly being targeted for new solar plants by companies wanting to tap into the new feed-in tariff system that guarantees an attractive price for electricity produced from renewable energy.
Some of the firms intend to use idle property they already own, while in other cases the prefectural and municipal governments are offering up public land that isn't being used.
The industry ministry set the rate at which utilities have to buy the clean electricity at ¥42 per kwh, high enough for the power suppliers to turn a profit.