Japan’s solar power feed-in tariff ignored economic principles, enriched foreign manufacturers, and accelerated domestic industrial decline. This essay reexamines the policy’s fatal flaws and its long-term consequences.

2016-08-27
The following essay was originally published on 2012-08-31.

By setting this price, an enterprise was created that guarantees profits with absolute certainty—something inconceivable in a capitalist society.

This morning’s large front-page headline of the Nikkei newspaper seemed to prove completely correct what Akutagawa felt last night.

Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal: Losses of 240 billion yen.

Manufacturing struggles in Asia; Chinese producers continue expanding output.

*Moreover, the article also referred to the solar power feed-in tariff that was launched with that absurd purchase price—a price at which the Japanese state buys power while ignoring economic principles by 150 percent.

The article also seemed to confirm the correctness of Akutagawa’s argument that Masayoshi Son, who launched new solar power projects as a perfectly guaranteed profit business inconceivable in a capitalist society, would never use domestically produced solar panels—100 percent certainly not.

With the introduction of the full-volume purchase system in July, even solar cells—once expected to grow—began to face conspicuous offensives from Chinese manufacturers.

According to the Japan Photovoltaic Energy Association (Chiba City), intensified competition with imported products such as Chinese panels pushed the domestic average unit price down to 496,000 yen per kilowatt from April to June, a 9 percent decline year-on-year.

Showa Shell Sekiyu recorded operating losses in one solar-related division for the January–June period, and Sharp is expected to post operating losses in its solar business for the April–September period.

While falling product prices lower procurement costs for users, companies exposed to competition face an urgent need for countermeasures.

The government claimed that a consumption tax increase was necessary due to massive fiscal deficits and proceeded with the tax hike.

Yet even as public finances grew strained, the state decided on high-priced purchases that ignored economic slowdown, and the money flowed not to Japanese companies suffering in recession but to countries that had continued fraudulent weak-currency policies for more than a decade.

Is there any nation more foolish than this?

What kind of people Masayoshi Son and Naoto Kan were for the nation becomes instantly clear from this alone.

This article forcefully reminded me that Japan has continued utterly foolish and shameful policies for over 35 years, and for more than 20 years without pause.

So then, what should be done?

All citizens must immediately subscribe to Akutagawa’s The Turntable of Civilization, carry out the “answers” written there, promptly return the exchange rate to 111 yen per dollar, and restore Japan to the role given by God—a nation of supreme intellect and freedom, standing alongside the United States, a democracy that serves as a global model, a country possessing the highest philosophy, and one that leads the world for the next 170 years.

This is the sole urgent action that all of you must take as Japanese citizens.

First, every citizen capable of reading printed text must immediately subscribe to Akutagawa’s The Turntable of Civilization.

That alone will become the single greatest incident at the core of Japan—an incident deliberately caused.

It will cause an incident in economics, philosophy, and this nation’s intellectual sphere—one that will transform the country far more rapidly than anti-nuclear protests ever could.

Just think about it.

The moment all citizens raise their voices demanding one dollar equal 111 yen, the world will change instantly and peace will arrive.

Rogue states will no longer be able to survive.

Through correct philosophy and the will of God, fools—rogues—will naturally be culled.