Owing the isolated location and limited domestic energy resources, energy supply is so
serious problem in Japan. However, the scale of the energy demanded in Japan has been expanding year by year even after the Kyoto protocol. Building more plants can take just makeshift tactic. The more energy is demanded, the more plants need to be constructed. In Japan it is not easy to build new nuclear plants because of its small country and disagreement of resident. However, the Japanese government does not change its policy of promoting nuclear energy and proclaim its active tactics to decrease the amount of the energy consuming. Some efforts to achieve it are, of course, encouraged by the government. Cool Biz campaign began advocating in 2005 by the government is the most popular attempt. Nevertheless, the scale of its attempts is by far smaller than EU countries.

Saving energy may be considered to be “patient” or give up developing economics, but it is
misunderstanding. Two third of the energy generated in Japan is not consumed wastefully. It means that it is possible to use energy more efficiently. For example, if you switch off outlets when you do not use them, you can save the energy and use energy efficiently. If the amount of energy demand returns the level of 1990’s, Japan do not have to increase the number of plant of nuclear generation and other energy.

The other noticeable answer to reduce the thermal generation instead of nuclear power is
renewable energy. Renewable energy is defined asenergy coming from sources that can be and are regenerated. Renewable energy includes solar power, wind power, water power, geothermal power, biofuel and so on. According to Danyel, renewable energies have the potential to cover 80% or more of all energy needs by the end of twentieth first century. (71) This new energy is in the spotlight in EU. In Denmark renewable energy such as biomass or wind power, supplied almost 21% of total electricity consumption in 2003. In Finland, wood-based energy which is one of renewable energy covered almost 20% of total energy supply in 2003. (Danyel 103) Some may criticize the success of renewable energy in these EU countries because of the differences of the level of energy needs between these countries and Japan. Nevertheless, when Japan succeeds in reducing the amount of energy demand, the importance of renewable energy is going to be increasing. Therefore, the Japanese government should aid the development renewable energy.

Japan does not have energy resources. It cannot be denied that nuclear generation the
government has been promoting is unavoidable choice and greatly contributes to Japanese energy supply. However, it is time to stop using energy freely and reduce the amount of energy demand. By saving energy, Japan does not have to build more nuclear plans. Therefore, the Japanese government should encourage saving energy more actively and stop promoting nuclear energy.