This chapter argues that Japan’s feed-in tariff system imposes excessive costs on the public through electricity bills, while reckless solar power development is causing deforestation, landslides, destruction of scenery, and a heavier burden on the socially vulnerable.
It exposes the legalized exploitation and national land degradation hidden behind the glorification of renewable energy, and calls for calm energy policy judgment and the restarting of nuclear power plants.

2019-03-27
The feed-in tariff system is a legalized system of exploitation.
Whenever people use electricity, they are charged about 10% more than before, and for the socially vulnerable this is a serious nuisance.

The chapter I published on 2018-07-19 under the title, “Placing solar panels on mountain slopes is the worst possible choice. Considering safety, they should be placed in vast empty areas where there is nothing,” has entered the official hashtag ranking at No. 29 for Denmark.
This morning, a friend who saw the advertisement for this week’s issue of Shukan Shincho in the lower section of the newspaper said, “Perhaps the editors of Shukan Shincho had read your reasoning about the abnormal weather, including this latest concentrated torrential rain,” and bought the magazine and brought it to me.
Readers too will realize that my argument was once again 100% correct, but in reality it had proven accurate in an even more terrible way.
At the same time, I felt the utmost anger toward Naoto Kan, Masayoshi Son, and Mizuho Fukushima, as well as media organizations such as the Asahi Shimbun and the news division of NHK.
For 2,600 years since its unified form, Japan has nurtured beautiful hearts in a beautiful land, and the words that all Japanese who love this country should now cry out are these.
Stop solar power generation.
An immediate total ban on solar power development.
An immediate end to power generation by fossil fuels of 3,000 kW or more.
An immediate restart of all 54 nuclear reactors.
That is what must be said.
Because there is no time left for us to realize that there is no other path by which we can save our national land from the schemes of the villains who seek to devastate it.
The emphases in the text apart from the headlines are mine.
It is the disaster victims who are forced to pay the price.
The man-made disaster called “solar energy.”
A dream story is, after all, only a story within a dream, not reality.
The same is true of solar energy, which was loudly advertised as clean and without environmental burden.
Now the solar panels spread across the Japanese archipelago supposedly out of concern for the environment are about to descend upon us as a man-made disaster.
When people are driven into a corner, it is said that they will “grasp even at a straw.”
For example, in the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011, the hearts of many people were crushed.
In particular, the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant sent shockwaves around the world because of the leaked radiation.
It is understandable, in one sense, that people clung excessively to renewable energy centered on solar power.
While it became taboo to speak of the usefulness of nuclear power, it was preached that if renewable energy were introduced as an alternative, a rosy future would open up.
At the forefront of this at the time was Prime Minister Naoto Kan.
An economics reporter explains.
“In 2012, the government expanded the feed-in tariff system under which electricity generated by renewable energy such as solar power was bought by electric utilities at high prices. At the time, the unit cost when utilities generated electricity with existing facilities was about 6 yen per kilowatt-hour, but the Kan administration decided to buy only renewable energy at the extraordinary price of 42 yen per kilowatt-hour. Although the purchase price itself has now fallen to around 20 yen, the total amount the public bears as a surcharge for renewable energy purchases reached 2.7 trillion yen last year.”
At present, electricity generated by solar energy accounts for 3% of Japan’s total power generation.
And yet the public bears this enormous cost for it.
Incidentally, total electricity sales amount to about 20 trillion yen.
Even so, it might still have some value if it were truly the source of funds needed to bring a dream story down to earth, but what if it were nothing more than a “straw”?
In September 2015, the embankment of the Kinugawa River in Ibaraki Prefecture collapsed due to torrential rain.
It has in fact become clear that one cause was that a private solar power operator excavated the natural levee in order to install panels.
That turns the dream story into a nightmare, but even in this latest torrential rain disaster, accidents occurred.
On July 5, solar panels installed on a slope in Suma Ward, Kobe City collapsed across approximately 400 square meters, causing the Sanyo Shinkansen running directly below to suspend operations temporarily.
Then on the 7th, a solar power facility collapsed across roughly 3,600 square meters on a slope in Himeji City, Hyogo Prefecture.
“Around there, ever since the solar power plant was built, soil has flowed onto the national highway and caused problems. There are three solar power plants in this area, and two of them were built by cutting into the mountain, so it is frightening,” said a local resident living near the Himeji site.
Another resident also said, “This time the collapse happened to occur in the middle, but if the lower part had given way, it might have struck cars driving on the national highway or houses along the road. I am frightened and anxious about what might happen the next time there is heavy rain.”
Yet no one can any longer even estimate how many similarly dangerous places now exist nationwide.
Solar panels are eroding the national land that extensively, in every corner of the country.
“Under the political leadership of the Kan administration, regulations on the installation of solar panels were relaxed, and in effect they could be installed anywhere without permission. As a result, forests across the country were cut down, covered with panels, and the environment came to be destroyed under the burden imposed on the public,” said the reporter mentioned earlier.
Professor Tadashi Narabayashi, Specially Appointed Professor at Tokyo Institute of Technology, also said the following.
“The feed-in tariff system is a legalized system of exploitation. If you use electricity, you are charged about 10% more than before, which is troubling for the socially vulnerable. On the other hand, for the wealthy it remains a good investment, yielding an annual return of 11%. That is why the solar bubble continues and leads to the disorderly proliferation of solar panels.”
Turning disaster warning zones into bald mountains.
Regrettably, Prime Minister Kan and the others at the time completely shut their eyes to the possibility that solar energy was merely a “straw,” in other words, to its negative aspects.
Whether it is Mr. Kan or former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, it is strange that even now they continue to insist only on “increase solar power generation,” as though clinging to a straw, unable to see the negative side at all.
In any case, because of the foolish policies already mentioned, the danger is already imminent in reality.
Even near the latest disaster-stricken areas, large-scale mega-solar developments are lined up one after another.
In the Sakuto district of Mimasaka City, Okayama Prefecture, approximately 410 hectares of slope, equivalent to 87 Tokyo Domes, are being cut away with the aim of starting operation next autumn, and residents are crying out in alarm.
“Right now they are cutting trees and digging up the roots, so even a little rain makes soil fall from the mountain and muddies the river. We opposed it because we thought that once it was completed the landslides would become terrible, but once the land is bought there is nothing we can do. The company says it will build three dams so the soil will not flow downward, but if torrential rain comes they will fill up immediately. Since they are digging up the roots of the trees as well, of course the soil keeps falling downhill. If the power station is completed and heavy rain comes, the mountain will collapse.”
Also in the Oi district of Okayama City, a plan is moving ahead to cut down approximately 186 hectares of forest, equivalent to 39 Tokyo Domes, and install a mega-solar facility. Hidenori Kayano, chairman of the district federation of neighborhood associations, voiced his concerns.
“I learned of the plan in February of last year. A Tokyo-based company intends to cut the trees, turn the mountain bald, and install as many as 276,000 solar panels. They have already acquired nearly 90% of the land. Suitable flat land is becoming scarce, but because the panels themselves have become cheaper, mountain forests are being targeted. They must think it is still profitable even after subtracting the construction cost of cutting open the mountain. The same thing is happening all over Japan.”
Under the banner of ecology, the profits of private companies are being prioritized over disaster prevention.
“This time too, debris flows occurred around here, and some people lost their lives. Many places in the downstream area directly below the planned site are landslide warning zones. Even according to specialists, the planned development site consists of soft decomposed granite soil, and it is only because trees such as konara oaks spread their roots that the ground is barely being held together. That is why, with this latest heavy rain, a landslide occurred even before construction began. And yet if they cut down trees over such a vast area, it is terrifying to think that even worse mountain collapses may occur. We have submitted petitions and resolutions of opposition to the prefecture and the city, but Okayama Prefecture promotes itself as ‘Sunny Okayama’ and is inviting solar power development…”
If the “sunny country” means the blazing sun after landslide disasters, then it is no joke at all.
Professor Tadashi Yamada of the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Chuo University, an expert in disaster prevention and hydraulics, also says.
“As a general rule, mountains are supported by the roots of the trees growing there, which hold the topsoil in place and suppress surface-layer collapses and slope failures. Therefore, once the trees are gone, the surface slips more easily and landslides are more likely to occur.”
Far from eco-friendly.
Even so, is it not the case that today’s solar bubble has learned absolutely nothing from Fukushima?
Professor Koji Okamoto of the University of Tokyo Graduate School points out, “The Fukushima accident caused tremendous trouble for the local people. Similarly, solar power generation also needs to be properly managed by the authorities. However, because solar power advanced so suddenly, there are no regulations whatsoever,” and continues.
“Placing solar panels on mountain slopes is the worst possible choice. Considering safety, they should be placed in vast empty areas where there is nothing. But under the present conditions, if someone wants to build them, almost anyone can build them anywhere. As a result, cases have become problematic such as in Hokuto City, Yamanashi Prefecture, where solar panels have been installed indiscriminately on steep slopes after forests were cut down, or attempts in Suwa City, Nagano Prefecture, to strip areas around a national park bare and place panels there.”
In other words, no thought is being given to how much inconvenience and harm this causes for the surrounding residents.
Professor Okamoto also touches on the essential weakness of solar power generation.
“It cannot generate power at night. Also, needless to say, on rainy or snowy days, and even when it is only slightly cloudy, the amount of power generated drops considerably. Therefore, in order to utilize solar power, storage batteries that can store large amounts of electricity generated during the daytime are important, but current storage systems do not function adequately. Innovation is indispensable, but considering today’s technological capabilities, it is quite impossible to develop a storage system within the next 10 or 20 years that has sufficient performance and is inexpensive.”
Mr. Narabayashi, mentioned earlier, adds.
“In Japan, the average daily sunshine hours during which solar power generation is possible are about six hours. Since the fair-weather rate is about 50%, the effective operating rate of solar power is only 12.5%. Moreover, its share of electricity is a mere 3%. Even when hydropower and wind power are added, renewable energy accounts for only 14%, while the remaining approximately 84% depends on thermal power generation. However, thermal power emits large amounts of CO2 and is the least environmentally friendly.”
Japan, where most nuclear power plants are not in operation, is therefore far from eco-friendly even in comparison with European countries.
“Japan emits 540 grams of CO2 per kilowatt-hour of electricity generated, which is among the worst levels in the world. Europe averages 311 grams. Within Europe, Germany, which like Japan has shut down half of its nuclear power plants and switched to coal-fired thermal power, is high at 450 grams. On the other hand, France, which supplies 78% of its electricity through nuclear power, is at 46 grams, and Denmark, which generates 49% of its electricity from wind power, is at 174 grams. In short, Japan, where eco is proclaimed most loudly, is precisely what is not eco-friendly.”
Furthermore, as you know, the CO2 emitted in this way is regarded as the chief culprit of global warming, which is bringing about torrential rains with a frequency that would once have been unprecedented.
Solar power generation whose dangers are hardly given a glance, and the resulting increase in CO2 and climate change.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that our country is now layering man-made disasters upon man-made disasters.
Then what should be done?
Professor Okamoto offers the following proposal.
“There are areas where solar power generation has advantages and areas where nuclear power generation has advantages, so we must make good use of both.”
“It is wrong to conclude that all solar panels are bad simply because there are malicious cases, since there are more operators who are doing things properly. Nuclear power too is, for the most part, sound and convenient, yet because of the Fukushima accident people came to think that all of it was bad. But rather than looking at only one part and marking it as right or wrong, we should look at the whole and make our judgment.”
Just as there is no such thing as immortality in this world, there is no policy or energy source without negative aspects.
Therefore, whether it is solar power or nuclear power, we must calmly discern both the positive and the negative, make skillful use of them, and strictly regulate what ought to be strictly regulated.
That alone is how man-made disasters can be prevented.
What is being asked of us is not to grasp at a straw, in other words, to remain calm.