Japan has a coal problem.
The country's dependence on fossil fuels has been growing since the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and consequential Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant disaster, which led to understandable widespread public opposition to nuclear energy. However, rather than taking the opportunity to set the course for a swift transition to renewable energy, the government and regional power companies have bet on fossil fuels. Coal, in particular, has played an outsized and dangerous role in the country's energy mix since then.
Japan's coal addiction goes beyond its own borders, too. In "Power Shift: Shifting G20 International Pubic Finance from Coal to Renewables," a December 2017 report co-published by the Natural Resources Defense Council and others, Japan is shown to be the largest public source of overseas coal project funding in dollar terms among the Group of Seven nations, second only to China on a global scale. The most recent giant coal plant funded by Japan, Nghi Son 2, located in Vietnam, was revealed to be so polluting that commercial bank Standard Chartered chose to walk away. Yet Vietnam and other South East Asia countries have huge potential for clean renewables such as solar and wind.