*Editor’s note: This article was originally published on 7/2/2026 on LinkedIn.
Welcome to issue 208 of Japan Climate Curation! 📬 I’m Hiroyasu Ichikawa (ichi), curating Japan’s climate news weekly since 2022 for 550+ subscribers on this Substack & [3,200+ on LinkedIn].
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Hiroyasu Ichikawa/市川裕康@SocialCompany
#ClimateCuration vol.214 配信しました🚀 climatecuration.theletter.jp/posts/1c5b9efa… 「スイング消費者」という言葉を聞いて、どんなイメージを持たれますか？イラン戦争後に最悪の事態が起きなかった理由は、中国が戦略備蓄を大規模放出し世界の石油需要の約5%を一手に消滅させていたからという分析に注目しました。
6:14 AM · Jun 27, 2026 · 190 Views
Disclaimer: Generative AI tools (Claude, ChatGPT, NotebookLM) have been used for summary and translation assistance. 🙂
[🇯🇵📰👀Japan Climate News Headlines]
📋 Japan to Unveil New Energy Action Plan in August, Targeting Post-Hormuz Structural Reforms [6/29 Argus Media]
⚛️ Japan’s Nuclear Regulator Moves to Streamline New Reactor Approvals by Front-Loading Security Reviews [6/26 Nikkei Asia]
🌊 Equinor Exits Japan Offshore Wind After Eight Years, Closing Tokyo Office by End of 2026 [6/26 Reuters]
🛢️ Asian Oil Buyers Cement Supply Diversification Even as Iran Ceasefire Brings Prices Down [6/27 Nikkei Asia]
🔒 China’s Battery Makers Shut Out of Japan’s Power Grid as Cybersecurity Rules Take Effect [7/1 Nikkei Asia]
⚙️ Mitsubishi Heavy to Invest $618 Million to Double Gas Turbine Capacity for AI Power Boom [6/28 Nikkei Asia]
🔥 JERA Pushes Ammonia Co-Firing to 60% at Japan’s Largest Coal Plant, Eyes Full Ammonia Combustion [7/2 Nikkei]
💨 SMBC Backs Canadian DAC Developer Deep Sky in Japan’s First Major Carbon Removal Investment [6/25 Carbon Herald]
🌡️ Japan’s Extreme Heat Becomes a Corporate Risk: 40% of CEOs Report Business Impact, Costs Set to Rise [7/1 Nikkei]
🚀 Japan Puts Startups at the Heart of Its $2.3 Trillion Tech Strategy as US VCs Arrive [7/1 Nikkei Asia]
【1】📋 Japan to Unveil New Energy Action Plan in August, Targeting Post-Hormuz Structural Reforms [06/29 Argus Media]
Japan will compile a new energy action plan by end of August, drawing on lessons from the Hormuz crisis to improve supply-demand structure through crisis management investment. The package will complement POWERR Asia and the GX strategy, targeting measures implementable before the next Strategic Energy Plan revision in FY2027–28. Maintaining the 20% nuclear target through 2040 requires replacing 2–5 reactors by the 2040s and 11–14 by the 2050s.
💡 Insight:
The August action plan is the bridge document between Japan’s crisis response and its next formal Strategic Energy Plan — and its budget inclusion makes it the most consequential near-term policy signal for energy investment.
The 2–5 reactor replacement requirement by the 2040s is now embedded in multiple government documents — converting aspiration into a quantified infrastructure target.
【2】⚛️ Japan’s Nuclear Regulator Moves to Streamline New Reactor Approvals by Front-Loading Security Reviews [06/26 Nikkei Asia]
Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority will revise rules to move counterterrorism reviews to the design stage — rather than just before fuel loading — to streamline new reactor construction. The change targets a wave of planned reactor replacements: up to 5 by the 2040s and 14 by the 2050s. A law amendment is targeted for as early as 2027. The reform addresses a key bottleneck where late-stage security reviews forced costly facility redesigns.
💡 Insight:
Front-loading security reviews is a meaningful process reform that reduces the single biggest source of late-stage cost overruns in Japanese nuclear construction.
The 2027 law amendment timeline is the near-term regulatory milestone that unlocks the 2040s replacement program.
【3】🌊 Equinor Exits Japan Offshore Wind After Eight Years, Closing Tokyo Office by End of 2026 [06/26 Reuters]
Equinor is exiting Japan’s offshore wind market after eight years — having failed to win any leases — and will close its Tokyo office by end-2026. The move follows Ørsted’s Japan exit in 2024 and Mitsubishi Corp’s withdrawal from three Round 1 zones last year. Equinor also scrapped its 2030 renewables capacity target on June 16, pivoting to integrated gas-and-power. JERA began construction on an Akita offshore wind project this year.
💡 Insight:
Equinor’s exit, following Ørsted’s in 2024, confirms that Japan’s offshore wind market has a fundamental economics problem that auction rule reforms alone cannot fix.
The consolidation of Japan’s offshore wind market around domestic players — JERA, Kansai Electric, and trading houses — is now the default outcome.
【4】🛢️ Asian Oil Buyers Cement Supply Diversification Even as Iran Ceasefire Brings Prices Down [06/27 Nikkei Asia]
Brent crude has fallen to ~$72/barrel — near pre-conflict levels — after the US-Iran ceasefire MOU last week. But Asian buyers are maintaining supply diversification: Japan aims to source 100% of July oil outside Hormuz and will build refineries for non-Middle East crude. India and South Korea are also restructuring procurement. OPEC’s pricing power is fraying, with the UAE having left in May and Iran reportedly considering exit.
💡 Insight:
The ceasefire has brought prices down but not reversed the structural shift in Asian oil procurement — and that divergence is the most important signal for long-term energy market positioning.
OPEC’s cohesion is fracturing at precisely the moment when its pricing power matters most.
【5】🔒 China’s Battery Makers Shut Out of Japan’s Power Grid as Cybersecurity Rules Take Effect [07/01 Nikkei Asia]
None of China’s storage battery or power conditioner makers — including Huawei, Sungrow, BYD, and CATL — have received Japan’s JC-STAR cybersecurity certification required for power grid connection from FY2027. China’s National Intelligence Law is cited as conflicting with the checklist’s foreign-law risk requirement. A Chinese battery executive called it “de facto exclusion.” Japanese firms using Chinese cells without communications capability have cleared the certification.
💡 Insight:
JC-STAR is becoming Japan’s de facto security gate for energy infrastructure — and China’s National Intelligence Law is a legal conflict that no product redesign or compliance effort can resolve.
The certification creates a competitive moat for non-Chinese suppliers in Japan’s fast-growing battery storage market.
【6】⚙️ Mitsubishi Heavy to Invest $618 Million to Double Gas Turbine Capacity for AI Power Boom [06/28 Nikkei Asia]
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will invest over ¥100 billion ($618 million) to double large gas turbine capacity by FY2030, targeting surging demand from AI data center power buildouts. Gas turbine revenue hit ¥992.2 billion in FY2024, up 25%, with a record order backlog of 74 units. Global gas turbine demand is projected at ~70GW annually over the next five years. MHI is one of only three global large turbine makers alongside GE Vernova and Siemens Energy.
💡 Insight:
Mitsubishi Heavy’s record 74-unit order backlog is the clearest supply-side signal yet that gas turbine capacity — not capital or demand — is the binding constraint in the global AI power buildout.
The after-sales services business is the hidden value driver in MHI’s gas turbine strategy.
【7】🔥 JERA Pushes Ammonia Co-Firing to 60% at Japan’s Largest Coal Plant, Eyes Full Ammonia Combustion [07/02 Nikkei]
JERA is accelerating ammonia co-firing at Hekinan Thermal Power Station — Japan’s largest coal plant at 4.1GW — targeting 20% co-firing for commercial operations by FY2029 and 60% co-firing trials by 2030, up from a prior 50% target. IHI completed technical verification of a dedicated ammonia combustion burner on June 29. JERA’s roadmap targets 50% co-firing commercial operations by the mid-2030s, with full ammonia combustion as the ultimate goal.
💡 Insight:
JERA’s 60% co-firing target at a 4.1GW plant is the largest-scale ammonia combustion commitment in the world — and its success or failure will determine whether coal-to-ammonia transition is commercially viable at grid scale.
Central Japan’s manufacturing belt creates a structurally captive market for low-carbon power that renewables and nuclear cannot fill on the required timeline.
【8】💨 SMBC Backs Canadian DAC Developer Deep Sky in Japan’s First Major Carbon Removal Investment [06/25 Carbon Herald]
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation has made its first-ever investment in the CDR/DAC sector, backing Canada’s Deep Sky to develop a carbon removal market in Japan. The deal marks the first allocation from SMBC’s Social Value Creation Investment Fund. Signed in Tokyo during Canada’s Team Canada Trade Mission, the partnership aims to build DAC project expertise, CO2 storage capabilities, and carbon removal credit infrastructure for Japanese corporate buyers.
💡 Insight:
SMBC’s first-ever CDR/DAC investment signals that Japan’s major financial institutions are beginning to treat carbon removal as a bankable asset class — not a philanthropic bet.
The Japan-Canada CDR corridor is emerging as a strategic supply chain, not just a bilateral research partnership.
【9】🌡️ Japan’s Extreme Heat Becomes a Corporate Risk: 40% of CEOs Report Business Impact, Costs Set to Rise [07/01 Nikkei]
A Nikkei survey of 140 major Japanese company presidents finds over 40% report negative business impact from extreme heat, with 60%+ expecting medium-to-long-term cost increases. Top responses include facility upgrades (44.3%) and wearable health monitoring (39.3%). Half now allow T-shirts in the office. Japan’s meteorological agency created a new “extreme heat day” category (40°C+) in April, and revised occupational safety rules mandating heat countermeasures took effect in June 2025.
💡 Insight:
Japan’s corporate sector is beginning to internalize extreme heat as a structural cost driver — not a seasonal inconvenience.
The 140-CEO survey data quantifies a domestic adaptation market that is only beginning to be priced.
【10】🚀 Japan Puts Startups at the Heart of Its $2.3 Trillion Tech Strategy as US VCs Arrive [07/01 Nikkei Asia]
Andreessen Horowitz is opening its first overseas office in Japan this summer, as the government’s ¥370 trillion growth strategy puts startups at the center. Japan has just 8 unicorns versus 750 in the US and 157 in China. US VC investment in China has collapsed from $54 billion in 2021 to $2.1 billion in H1 2025. Japan hopes that capital reallocation — and a culture shift toward global ambition — will help close the gap in AI, robotics, and biotech.
💡 Insight:
The collapse of US venture capital investment in China — from $54 billion in 2021 to $2.1 billion in H1 2025 — is the macro tailwind that makes Japan’s startup push credible for the first time.
Japan’s startup gap is fundamentally a culture and ecosystem problem, not a capital problem — and the government’s procurement commitment is the most underreported policy lever.
📬 That’s a wrap for this week! Thank you for reading.
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