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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 November 2017
At the Second East Asia Summit held in Cebu, Philippines on 14–15 January 2007, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced Japan's intention to provide Japanese energy saving technologies to help Asian nations achieve efficiency in energy use and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Prime Minister announced a US$2 billion aid package to help Asian nations develop energy saving technologies that can help to decrease the region's dependence on oil. He also invited researchers and Japanese experts to come on board. These commitments from the Prime Minister himself show that Japan has highly efficient energy saving technologies and is commited to spread such technologies to other parts of the world.
Before the “Oil Shock” hit Japan in 1973, the general view is that energy resources, especially oil, will not run out of supply. In that year, a brief but serious panic occurred in Japan. The manufacturing of detergent and toilet paper had to be halted, and about half of the elevators in buildings had to be stopped to reduce energy usage. Television stations ceased their broadcasting at midnight, and car usage had to be decreased to save petrol.
The year 1973 saw the dawn of energy conservation in Japan. Since then, many products, especially automobiles and household appliances, could only be sold if they have been proven to be energy saving (shoo-ene). Energy saving features are not restricted to general consumer products only but also to manufacturing facilities, transportation machines, houses, and buildings. Many Japanese products are now considered as a small package of energy saving technologies. Energy efficiency in Japan has improved by more than 37 per cent in the last thirty years (see Figure 1.1), and it has become the most energy-efficient country in the world. The Japanese Government has targeted a further energy conservation by 30 per cent in the next ten years (see Figure 1.2). Energy efficiency in the United States is half that of Japan, and in China it is is only one-ninth that of Japan (see Figure 1.3).
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