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Category: energy

  • Sir Stephen Gomersall on UK-Japan business and globalization

    Sir Stephen Gomersall on UK-Japan business and globalization

    Sir Stephen Gomersall: former British Ambassador to Japan and Chairman of Hitachi Europe

    Sir Stephen Gomersall on UK-Japan business and globalization: Globalization and the art of tea

    Hitachi – Japan’s most iconic corporation – under the leadership of Chairman & CEO, Hiroaki Nakanishi embarked on the “Smart Transformation Project” to globalize, to face a world where value creation has moved from manufacturing to innovation and solving customer’s problems, and to overcome long years of stagnation and low profits or losses, despite strong technology capabilities.

    One of the most important brains behind Hitachi’s reinvention and globalization is Sir Stephen Gomersall. After a long and successful career as diplomat in the British Foreign Service, culminating in the years as British Ambassador to Japan 1999-2004, Sir Stephen joined Hitachi in 2004 as the first foreigner responsible for proposing and implementing Hitachi’s overseas regional strategy. Later Sir Stephen became responsible for all of Hitachi’s business in Europe as Chairman and Chief Executive of Hitachi Europe, and in addition Sir Stephen also served as Director on the Board of all Hitachi 2011-2014 overseeing all of Hitachi Group’s business as Board Director. With Sir Stephen’s leadership Hitachi achieved major business breakthroughs in Europe.

    On March 5, 2015, Sir Stephen gave the “Princess Chichibu Memorial Lecture to the Japan British Society at Ueno Gakuen University in Tokyo with deep insights on Japan-British relations, on comparison of Britain’s and Japan’s position in the world, and on the challenges of globalization facing Japan and Japanese corporations – in particular Hitachi.

    Sir Stephen is very clear that there is no alternative to globalization: “Globalisation poses tough challenges for Japanese companies, but is the only way forward”.

    Read Sir Stephen’s lecture here:

    Sir Stephen Gomersall: “Globalisation and the art of tea” (click the link above to read the full text of Sir Stephen’s Princess Chichibu Memorial Lecture)

    Sir Stephen Gomersall

    Stephen Gomersall was British Ambassador to Japan from 1999-2004, and Hitachi’s Chief Executive for Europe and subsequently Board Director from 2004-2014. He is now Adviser to the CEO, Hitachi Ltd.

    Copyright (c) 2015 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

  • Japan new energy policy creates opportunities for renewables, smart grid and more – interview by The Economist

    Japan new energy policy creates opportunities for renewables, smart grid and more – interview by The Economist

    Japan energy policy: interview for The Economist on YouTube

    by Gerhard Fasol

    Japan energy policy – interview outline:

    Japan energy policy Question: Is the new energy policy of Japan’s Government an appropriate response to the situation or a missed opportunity

    Answer summary:The Government in its new strategy summarizes Japan’s energy situation and proposes a cocktail of different energy sources. Everyone knows that Prime Minister Abe is pro-nuclear energy, but that does not mean that he is against other energy sources, such as renewables. The new energy strategy paper though misses KPIs, Key Performance Indicators. There are no many numerical targets.

    Japan energy policy Question: It is often repeated that Japan is poor in energy sources, is this true?

    Answer summary:Yes, that is often repeated without thinking, and thats also the case in the introduction of the new policy paper. This is only true as long as we restrict our view to traditional carbon based primary energy sources such as oil, gas, or coal. But if we widen the view to renewables such as wind, water, solar, biomass, and geo-thermal energy sources, then Japan is actually very rich in primary energy sources, and could even aim for energy self-sufficiency. Off-shore wind alone would be sufficient to make Japan energy self-sufficient.
    Just by repeating the statement many times, that Japan is poor in energy sources, does not make this statement true.

    The new energy policy paper also starts out by saying the Japan is poor in primary energy sources. This is not true if we widen the view to renewable energy sources.

    Japan energy policy Question: Re-engineering the electricity grid. Can you explain the concept?

    Answer summary:The electricity grid has evolved over many years, maybe 100-150 years. The traditional architecture of the electricity grid is a top-down one-way distribution network from large central power station such as large coal-, gas- or oil-fired power stations or nuclear power stations, to consumers. The traditional electricity grid is similar to the arteries in the human body, where there is the heart in the center, and the arteries distribute the blood to the extremities. This traditional top-down grid has served us very well for a long time, but the time as come now to evolve the grid to the next stage. There will be more distributed power generation, which feed in electricity in the opposite direction from the extremities, and there will be more intelligence in the grid.

    Japan energy policy Question: How do you see Japan deal in the future with supply and demand management, how do you see electricity prices evolve in Japan?

    Answer summary:With the liberalization there will be more flexibility in the pricing of electricity and supply and demand management. Prices will not necessarily go down, but will depend much more on the timing of demand, on demand/supply management, or on the value of electricity. For example, mission critical electricity consumers such as data centers or hospitals will need a different type of electricity supply, than washing machines in households. Demand/supply management and smart grid will manage the timing of less critical electricity usage.

    Economist briefing “Keeping the lights on – deregulation, new and renewables and Japan’s energy mix” handouts

    Japan energy markets (21st edition)
    Renewable energy Japan (9th edition)

    Copyright 2014 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

  • Japan energy – myths versus reality. Japan’s energy situation from the view point of physics

    Japan energy – myths versus reality. Japan’s energy situation from the view point of physics

    Japan energy – myths versus reality. A lecture for the Stockholm School of Economics presented at the Embassy of Sweden

    Japan energy – myths versus reality – outline of the lecture:

    • Energy and DNA
    • Energy and Physics, why you need to understand physics to understand energy
    • Ludwig Boltzmann’s tools and laws to work with energy
    • Myth versus reality, mantra versus smart – psychology of judgment and decision making
    • Parliamentary commission results: “regulatory capture” caused the Fukushima nuclear accident
    • History: Japan’s energy architecture frozen since 1952
    • Primary energy: 96% imported
    • Why Japan pays so much for LNG
    • Electricity architecture and liberalization
    • renewable energy
    • Future: where do we go from here?

    Thank you to all those who attended the event “Japan’s energy – myths vs reality” at the Embassy of Sweden – an event organized by the European Institute for Japanese Studies of the Stockholm School of Economics.

    We had about 120 registrations for 100 seats in the Alfred Nobel Auditorium of the Embassy of Sweden – participants included an official from Japan’s Prime Minister’s Cabinet Office, Officials from several Embassies including the Swedish, US, Norwegian, Swiss, Hungarian and more Embassy, executives from Japanese and European telecom and energy companies, including also several independent power producers (IPPs), legal professionals, and groups of students and MBA students from Tokyo University, Hitotsubashi University and others.

    We had very vivid discussion, and continued the discussions over nijikai.

    Detailed data, statistics and analysis of Japan’s energy markets:

    All the data of the talk are from our reports on Japan’s energy sector:

    Japan energy markets (21st edition)
    Renewable energy Japan (9th edition)

    Copyright 2013 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

  • Japan’s energy – myths versus reality

    Japan’s energy – myths versus reality

    in cooperation with the Stockholm School of Economics at the Embassy of Sweden
    in cooperation with the Stockholm School of Economics at the Embassy of Sweden

    European Institute of Japanese Studies Academy Seminars presents:

    • “Japan’s Energy – Myths vs Reality”
    • Speaker: Dr. Gerhard Fasol, President, Eurotechnology Japan K.K.
    • Wednesday, June 19th, 2013, 18:30 – 21:00
    • Embassy of Sweden, Alfred Nobel Auditorium
    • Stockholm School of Economics, European Institute of Japanese Studies

    for details and registration click here

    Announcement on the webpage of Stockholm School of Economics

    About the talk:

    Japan’s electricity companies earn about US$ 200 billion annually in revenues, and until the Fukushima nuclear accident, about 30% of energy was generated by nuclear power plants, which are currently switched off except for two nuclear plants in Kansai region. Renewable energy sectors expect the rapid built-up of renewable sources in Japan to continue, ie; solar energy, wind, geo-thermal and other sources to follow. METI is also working on liberalization of Japan’s energy markets. Japan’s energy sector undergoes rapid changes and presents large opportunities. In the presentation, we will hear some of the myths about electricity and energy in Japan, and the realities. We will also hear how foreign companies can succeed in Japan’s energy sector.

    About the speaker:

    Dr. Gerhard Fasol is physicist and entrepreneur who has worked since 1984 with Japan’s high-tech sector. He worked on the entrance strategies into Japan’s environmental and energy sector for one of Europe’s largest engineering multi-nationals, and for US investment funds and venture companies on market entry into Japan’s energy sector. Gerhard also organizes annual “Ludwig Boltzmann Symposia on Energy” for CEOs and leaders of Japan’s energy sector.
    Gerhard graduated with a PhD in Physics from Cambrige University/Trinity College. He was tenured faculty member in Physics at Cambridge University, and Associate Professor at Tokyo University’s Electrical Engineering Faculty and led a JST-Sakigake project on spin electronics before founding Eurotechnology Japan KK.

    • Date: Wednesday, June 19th, 2013
    • Time:
    • 6.30 p.m. – 7.00 p.m. Drink & Snack (served before lecture)
    • 7.00 p.m. – 9.00 p.m. Lecture and Discussion
    • Place: Alfred Nobel Auditorium, Embassy of Sweden
    • 10-3-400 Roppongi 1-chome, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0032
    • Five-minute walk from Tokyo Metro Nanboku Line Roppongi 1-chome Station
    • Five-minute walk from Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line Kamiya-cho Station
    • Fee: JPY3,000 per person, payable at the door
    • Free for those who are from sponsoring companies (*)
    • Free for students, please bring your student ID
    • Language: English
    • (*) EIJS Academy 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 Sponsoring companies
    • Gadelius Holding Ltd., Ericsson Japan K.K., Nihon Tetra Pak K.K., Sandvik K.K.,
    • Höganäs Japan K.K. and in cooperation with the Embassy of Sweden

    Announcement on the webpage of Stockholm School of Economics

    The talk is based of the following reports, which you might be interested in:

    Renewable energy Japan (9th edition)
    Japan energy markets (21st edition)

    Copyright 2013 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved