JAPAN Trends and Developments Contributed by: Takahiro Kobayashi, Shigeki Okatani, Yusuke Murakami and Hirohiko Tanaka, Mori Hamada & Matsumoto
lish new rules for the use of offshore areas, to promote offshore wind power. In line with this trend, the development of offshore wind farms in Japan is steadily moving forward. Following the commercial operation of the first large-scale commercial-basis offshore wind project in Japan in two port areas in Akita Prefecture in January 2023, the project developed at Ishikari Bay New Port in Hokkaido started commercial operation in January 2024 and Hibikinada Wind Farm in Kita-Kyushu city will commence its operation in FY 2025 (1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026). Sev- eral other offshore wind projects are also under development. Thus, the offshore wind market in Japan is expected to grow in the next few years, with the government setting targets of 10 GW by 2030 and 30–45 GW by 2050. Regarding project sites, the Port Act was amended in 2016 to create a legal framework to allow renewable energy projects to use port areas ( kouwan kuiki , or regulated offshore areas around certain designated ports) for longer peri- ods. In addition, a new law to establish a legal framework to ensure the long-term occupancy of offshore areas in Japan’s territorial waters and internal waters, excluding port areas, for devel- oping offshore wind power projects (the “Marine Renewable Energy Act”) came into force in April 2019. The Marine Renewable Energy Act established rules for the use of offshore areas for wind power projects, and provides for: • the designation of “promotion zones” to allow the long-term occupation of certain marine areas for the construction of offshore wind power plants;
• a competitive bidding process to determine the developer and tariff/premium; and • a framework to accommodate the interests of stakeholders. Under the Marine Renewable Energy Act, three rounds of bidding for a total of ten promotion zones have been completed so far. In addition, the government has identified 20 potential marine areas where project prepara- tions have progressed to a certain extent; among these marine areas, the government has desig- nated nine as “promising areas”. A bill to amend the Marine Renewable Energy Act is also currently being deliberated in the Diet to establish a permit system for the installation of offshore wind power generation facilities in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) outside the territorial waters of Japan. According to the bill, operators for offshore wind projects in the EEZ will be selected through a two-stage process consisting of a provisional permit and an installa- tion permit, as opposed to the one-stage opera- tor selection process within territorial waters. The above-mentioned bill also introduces a cen- tralised system for the environmental impact assessment (EIA) of offshore wind projects in ter- ritorial waters, under which the initial procedures of each EIA will be carried out by the Minister of the Environment, instead of each developer. The government is also implementing various measures to promote offshore wind power, including development of related infrastruc- ture (like base ports and submarine transmis- sion cables) and raising the “Green Innovation Fund” for new technologies (such as floating wind farms). Further, the government has dem- onstrated strong commitment to creating an
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