DAN HILTON
April 22, 2008
Standing amid a forest of grey office towers, breathing the acrid exhaust from a million Osaka tailpipes, or wandering through residential Tokyo neighbourhoods replete with emission belching factories and residential apartments, Japan's environmental innovations can be difficult to see and even harder to imagine.
Fortunately, Japan is rarely without paradox.
Japanese citizens today use about half as much energy as North Americans, yet have an even more energy dependent lifestyle. Relentless innovation and the nationwide embrace of conservation and sustainability — two characteristic Japanese values — have enabled Japan to reduce its energy consumption while at the same time expanding economic output, a rare accomplishment among industrialized nations.
Bicycles are still used by millions of Japanese commuters every day, and form a key link in Japan's modern and efficient public transportation system.
Here conservation and sustainability are driven not only by environmental interests, but by industrial development, technical innovation, GDP growth, and the endless pursuit of consumer happiness.
For 63-year-old Hiroko Morita, consumer happiness comes by the tankful.
Morita drives a Kei car (kei jidôsha: lightweight automobile). It looks and drives much like a regular compact car, but has disproportionately smaller dimensions. It is taller in height but shorter and narrower in length, yet lighter and astonishingly roomy for its size. It's also incredibly efficient. "It used to cost Y8000 ($77 CDN) to fill my old car's tank," explains Morita, "but this Kei car costs Y4000 ($37 CDN) and goes even farther between fill-ups."
Introduced in 1949 to help Japan's post war economy recover, the Kei car is once again poised to help save Japan — this time from choking exhaust fumes and high fuel prices. Powered by 660cc three cylinder gasoline engines (the maximum displacement allowed in the Kei class), many Kei cars can travel 20 kilometres on a single litre of fuel. They're also cheaper to insure, exempt from annual car taxes, and can be purchased without a police parking permit, required for larger vehicles.
But the greenest cars in the world will soon be a shade greener: by 2009, several Japanese manufacturers plan to introduce battery powered electric Kei cars, which many here hope will help Japan achieve Kyoto Protocol emission reduction targets of 6% below 1990 levels.
In Japan's efforts to reach those targets, the Kei car is not alone. With a public transportation network that includes over 27,000 kilometres of railway lines and uses bullet trains, express trains, subways, streetcars, buses, and plenty of bicycle racks, many in Japan have no need for an automobile, no matter how efficient. Public transportation has become the minivan of the nation, moving millions of people each day with incredible energy efficiency and keeping millions of cars off the roads.
Inside homes and offices, Japan's green technology is even more impressive. In addition to water-saving toilets, on demand hot water heaters, vacuum sealed refrigerators, bath water re heaters, and compact and highly efficient home appliances, new homes can be ordered with hydrogen fuel cells to produce electricity and hot water. And in 2009, the government will provide further subsidies for consumers who wish to retrofit existing homes with the latest fuel cell technology.
Spurred by generous government incentives and climbing fuel prices, lightweight 'Kei' cars now account for over 35% of new car sales in Japan.
Trends come and go with unnerving haste in Japan, but the green trend shows no signs of abating. In home appliance and electronic shops, "low prices" signs have given way to "low kilowatt hour" tags and Energy Star rating labels. Television ads and government pamphlets promote the benefits of living cleaner, greener lifestyles. Recycle shops and flea markets, once unthinkable in Japan, can now be found in most Japanese cities. And in business and government buildings, "warm biz" and "cool biz" programs encourage thermostats to be turned down and air conditioners to be used sparingly.
Japan's environmental knowledge is now an export commodity, and goes far beyond hybrid automobiles, home use fuel cells, and low power appliances. In 1992, Japan's External Trade Organization (JETRO) launched its Green Aid Plan (GAP) to enable the transfer of energy and environmental technology to developing countries in Asia and around the world. The goal is to reduce the environmental impact of rapid industrialization, something Japan knows all about, having made many of the mistakes itself.
It's also developed many of the solutions: since the 1970's Japan's industrial output has nearly tripled, but its energy usage has remained almost flat. As a percentage of GDP, the Japanese are the lowest users of energy in the developed world. They are also one of the highest re users of energy in the world. Nationwide recycling — which sees business and household waste washed, sorted, recycled, and often reprocessed into fuel used to generate electricity — helps ensure waste energy isn't wasted.
Alternative sources of energy such as wind and solar also contribute an increasing amount to Japan's domestic energy supply. Since 2003, the government has required energy providers to source specific quotas of energy from alternative domestic sources, such as solar energy that now contribute over 1.4 million kilowatts of power to Japan's grid.
Even with new technologies and forward thinking policies, there is a sense one lives on borrowed time in Japan. "As for climate change, it may be too late for we Japanese," explains 78-year-old Hiroshi Yamashita, a retired university professor who now collects vinyl recordings and tends a miniature forest of backyard Bonsai trees. "When sea levels rise, Japan will become Fuji Island."
Innovation has always been Japan's only hope, and the desire for energy autonomy, economic growth, and technological innovation is also a desire for survival. So it is for us all.
The cliché that Japan is "the future" has never been more compelling, because ours is a shared future of having to do more while using significantly less energy. In this sense, Japan is so ahead of the curve, it's almost out of sight.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Green drivers turn to small, fuel-efficient Japanese imports
As governments encourage Canadians to reduce the automobile's environmental footprint, Les Smith believes he's already done his part thanks to his decision to purchase his Honda Acty.
"It looks like one of those big Hino trucks, only it's been through the wash," says the Vancouver school board worker. "It's very tiny."
The diminutive pickup truck belongs to a class of Japanese vehicle know as kei jidosha — literally, lightweight vehicle. They must conform to strict size and power limits, but in return get generous government tax breaks and special parking privileges in Japan's auto-choked cities.
Sales of kei cars and trucks, as they're called, have boomed, accounting for about a third of the total in a country where gasoline prices are only slightly higher than Canada's, but where conservation is fostered because Japan relies totally on imported oil.
Minicars, including models slightly larger than Japan's kei class, make up about 35 per cent of auto sales in Europe, where drivers pay the highest fuel prices in the world.
The challenge of putting comfort, space and driveability into a tiny package has often pushed designers and engineers in innovative directions. The 2007 Mitsubishi "i" was named Japan's car of the year.
Ottawa promises green tax credits
Environmentalists and transportation specialists believe minicars could be part of the solution to growing urban congestion and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
'What we found with the Smart is you could have a safe vehicle that was small and still fuel efficient.' —Patricia Procter, Transport Canada
Ottawa and provincial governments are encouraging the purchase of gasoline-electric hybrids through tax credits. Vancouver offers 50 per cent discounts for fuel-efficient vehicles parking on city-owned lots.
Federal Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon also announced this month it was expanding research into environmentally friendly vehicles through a new ecoTechnology program.
Transport Canada program manager Patricia Procter says her $15-million, four-year budget almost quadruples the money the previous Advanced Technology Vehicle program had available to evaluate promising automotive technologies such as battery-electric and fuel-cell vehicles.
"Our goal is to not only show the consumers what could be available, but actually work and have some tangible results that we would share with the auto industry and the consumers about the benefits of introducing them into Canada," says Procter.
4,000 Smart Cars sold in 2005
The earlier program looked at a number of vehicles, including several Japanese kei cars and trucks, but didn't have the money to do rigorous testing, says Procter. It did manage to facilitate the introduction of Mercedes-Benz's Smart car, a diesel-powered two-seat urban runabout, in 2005.
The company sold about 4,000 Smarts in its first full year but sales slid to just over 3,000 last year — still ahead of expectations, says spokeswoman JoAnne Caza.
Based on surveys and her program's displays at auto shows, Procter says there's some appetite among consumers for small, fuel-efficient vehicles, at least for city use. But North American motorists remain leery of tiny cars in their world, where trucks and SUVs rule the road.
"Consumers had a big fear of the size of vehicle. If it was small it wasn't really safe," Procter says of the car show feedback. "What we found with the Smart is you could have a safe vehicle that was small and still fuel efficient. Large doesn't necessarily mean better."
"It looks like one of those big Hino trucks, only it's been through the wash," says the Vancouver school board worker. "It's very tiny."
The diminutive pickup truck belongs to a class of Japanese vehicle know as kei jidosha — literally, lightweight vehicle. They must conform to strict size and power limits, but in return get generous government tax breaks and special parking privileges in Japan's auto-choked cities.
Sales of kei cars and trucks, as they're called, have boomed, accounting for about a third of the total in a country where gasoline prices are only slightly higher than Canada's, but where conservation is fostered because Japan relies totally on imported oil.
Minicars, including models slightly larger than Japan's kei class, make up about 35 per cent of auto sales in Europe, where drivers pay the highest fuel prices in the world.
The challenge of putting comfort, space and driveability into a tiny package has often pushed designers and engineers in innovative directions. The 2007 Mitsubishi "i" was named Japan's car of the year.
Ottawa promises green tax credits
Environmentalists and transportation specialists believe minicars could be part of the solution to growing urban congestion and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
'What we found with the Smart is you could have a safe vehicle that was small and still fuel efficient.' —Patricia Procter, Transport Canada
Ottawa and provincial governments are encouraging the purchase of gasoline-electric hybrids through tax credits. Vancouver offers 50 per cent discounts for fuel-efficient vehicles parking on city-owned lots.
Federal Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon also announced this month it was expanding research into environmentally friendly vehicles through a new ecoTechnology program.
Transport Canada program manager Patricia Procter says her $15-million, four-year budget almost quadruples the money the previous Advanced Technology Vehicle program had available to evaluate promising automotive technologies such as battery-electric and fuel-cell vehicles.
"Our goal is to not only show the consumers what could be available, but actually work and have some tangible results that we would share with the auto industry and the consumers about the benefits of introducing them into Canada," says Procter.
4,000 Smart Cars sold in 2005
The earlier program looked at a number of vehicles, including several Japanese kei cars and trucks, but didn't have the money to do rigorous testing, says Procter. It did manage to facilitate the introduction of Mercedes-Benz's Smart car, a diesel-powered two-seat urban runabout, in 2005.
The company sold about 4,000 Smarts in its first full year but sales slid to just over 3,000 last year — still ahead of expectations, says spokeswoman JoAnne Caza.
Based on surveys and her program's displays at auto shows, Procter says there's some appetite among consumers for small, fuel-efficient vehicles, at least for city use. But North American motorists remain leery of tiny cars in their world, where trucks and SUVs rule the road.
"Consumers had a big fear of the size of vehicle. If it was small it wasn't really safe," Procter says of the car show feedback. "What we found with the Smart is you could have a safe vehicle that was small and still fuel efficient. Large doesn't necessarily mean better."
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