The power shortages that hit the country following the March 2011 disasters made better energy management an imperative and spawned efforts to create efficient "smart cities."
Ideas for these environmentally friendly communities that employ cutting-edge technology have been flourishing — especially in the disaster-hit Tohoku region — as the government encourages businesses and municipalities to launch subsidized smart city recovery projects.
In addition to smart city projects nationwide that were under way before the March 11 earthquake, tsunami and subsequent Fukushima nuclear crisis, around 50 such initiatives have emerged in Tohoku.