Japan Seeks to Increase Hydrogen Supply by Six Times by 2040

The Yomiuri Shimbun

6:00 JST, April 8, 2023

Japan aims to raise its annual hydrogen supply to six times the current level by 2040.

The government made the decision during a ministerial meeting on renewable energy and hydrogen held at the Prime Minister’s Office earlier this week.

Currently, the nation’s annual supply of hydrogen stands at about 2 million tons.

“To promote decarbonization in Japan, investments by the private sector need to be accelerated,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said during the Tuesday meeting.

In late May, the hydrogen strategy will be revised to seek investments totaling ¥15 trillion from the public and private sectors over the next 15 years.

Kishida instructed Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura and other relevant ministers to work together for that purpose.

By fiscal 2030, the government aims for the nation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 46% compared to the fiscal 2013 level. It aims to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.

In a revised strategy, the government intends to stress the need to build a large-scale supply chain and industrial complexes in order to commercialize hydrogen around 2030, specifying that financial support and public-private investment would be provided to support these efforts.

As hydrogen is a clean fuel, it is expected to be a mainstay of next-generation energy.

The envisaged strategy also plans to call for establishing a Japan-led global standard for clean hydrogen that reduces carbon emissions that arise during some methods of hydrogen production.