This essay examines how Japan’s feed-in tariff system expanded solar power while causing land destruction, higher disaster risks, and heavier financial burdens on the public.
Using a Weekly Shincho article and expert testimony, it analyzes the dangerous relationship between heavy rain disasters and mega-solar development, including deforestation, reckless hillside construction, and even the paradoxical increase of CO2 emissions.
It argues that both solar power and nuclear power should be judged calmly from both their strengths and weaknesses rather than through emotion or ideology.

March 27, 2019.
“The feed-in tariff system is a legally sanctioned system of exploitation.
Whenever people use electricity, about 10 percent more is added to their electricity bill than before, which is a serious burden for the socially vulnerable.”

A chapter I published on July 19, 2018 titled “It Is the Worst Possible Choice to Place Solar Panels on Mountain Slopes.
From the standpoint of safety, they should be placed only in vast open areas where nothing else exists” has entered the official hashtag ranking at No. 29 under Denmark.

This morning, a friend who saw the advertisement for this week’s issue of Weekly Shincho in the lower section of the newspaper told me, “Perhaps the editors of Weekly Shincho had read your argument about the recent torrential rains and other abnormal weather,” and brought me a copy of the magazine.
Readers will realize that my argument was once again 100 percent correct, but in reality it proved true in an even worse way than I had imagined.
At the same time, I felt the utmost anger toward Naoto Kan, Masayoshi Son, Mizuho Fukushima, and also toward 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 upon a beautiful land, and the words that every Japanese person who loves this country should now cry out are these.
Stop solar power generation.
Immediately ban all solar power development.
Immediately stop power generation from fossil fuels above 3,000 kw.
Immediately restart all 54 nuclear reactors.
That is what must be said.
Because there is no time left for us to learn that there is no other way to save our land from the schemes of those villains who seek to devastate it.
All emphases in the body text other than the headings are mine.

The disaster victims are the ones forced to pay the price.
“Solar energy” as a man-made disaster.

A dream story is only a dream and not reality.
The same is true of solar energy, which has been advertised as clean and environmentally friendly.
Solar panels laid across all parts of the Japanese archipelago in the name of environmental consideration are now threatening to strike us as a man-made disaster.
When people are driven into a corner, they say they will clutch even at a straw.
For example, in the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011, many people were emotionally crushed.
Above all, the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant shook the world with the radiation that escaped.
It is understandable to a certain extent that people clung excessively to renewable energy centered on solar power.
While speaking of the usefulness of nuclear power became taboo, people were told that if renewable energy were introduced as an alternative, a rosy future would open up.
At the forefront of that movement stood then Prime Minister Naoto Kan.
An economics reporter explains.
“In 2012, the government expanded the feed-in tariff system under which electric utilities purchase electricity generated from renewable energy sources such as solar power at high prices.
At that time, the unit price for electricity generated by existing utility facilities was around 6 yen per kilowatt-hour, but the Kan administration decided that renewable energy alone would be purchased at the extraordinary price of 42 yen.
Although the purchase price has now fallen to about 20 yen, the total amount borne by the public as a surcharge for the purchase of renewable energy reached as much as 2.7 trillion yen last year.”
At present, electricity generated by solar energy accounts for 3 percent of Japan’s total electricity generation.
And yet the public is bearing such enormous costs for it.
For reference, total electricity sales amount to about 20 trillion yen.
Even so, it might still have some value if it were truly the source material for bringing a dream to earth, but what if it was no more than a straw.
In September 2015, the levee of the Kinugawa River in Ibaraki Prefecture collapsed due to heavy rain.
It has in fact become clear that one of the causes was that a private solar power operator excavated the natural levee in order to install solar panels.
That makes it not a dream story but a nightmare, and accidents also occurred during this latest heavy rain disaster.
On July 5, solar panels installed on a slope in Suma Ward, Kobe, collapsed over an area of about 400 square meters, and the Sanyo Shinkansen line running just below was temporarily suspended.
Then on July 7, a solar power facility collapsed over about 3,600 square meters on a hillside in Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture.
“Around here, since the solar power plant was built, sediment 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 mountains, so it is frightening,” said a nearby resident at the Himeji site.
Another resident said, “The part that collapsed this time just happened to be in the middle, but if the lower part had collapsed, it might have hit cars on the national highway or houses along the road.
I am frightened and anxious about what may happen the next time there is heavy rain.”
Yet no one can even begin to estimate how many similarly dangerous locations now exist across the country.
Solar panels are eroding the national land throughout the entire country to that degree.
“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 all over the country were cut down, covered with panels, and the environment came to be destroyed at the public’s expense,” said the reporter quoted above.
Tadashi Narabayashi, specially appointed professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, also said this.
“The feed-in tariff system is a legally sanctioned system of exploitation.
Whenever people use electricity, about 10 percent more is added to their electricity bill than before, which is a serious burden for the socially vulnerable.
On the other hand, for the wealthy it is still a good investment yielding an annual return of 11 percent.
That is why the solar power bubble continues and leads to the reckless proliferation of solar panels.”

Turning disaster warning zones into bald mountains.

Unfortunately, Prime Minister Kan and others at the time completely shut their eyes to the possibility that solar energy might be only a straw, in other words to its negative side.
Whether it is Kan or former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, it is strange that even now they keep insisting only that “solar power should be increased,” as though clinging to a straw and unable to see the negative aspects.
In any case, because of the foolish policy already described, danger is already pressing close.
Even near the disaster areas this time, large-scale mega-solar developments are lined up one after another.
In the Sakuto district of Mimasaka City, Okayama Prefecture, slopes covering about 410 hectares, equivalent to 87 Tokyo Domes, are being cut away for operation next autumn, and residents are crying out in distress.
“They are cutting trees now and digging up the roots, so even a little rain makes the soil fall from the mountain and muddies the river.
We opposed it because we thought that once completed it would cause terrible sediment damage, but once the land is bought there is nothing we can do.
The developers say they will build three dams so that the soil does not flow downward, but if torrential rain comes they will be filled up instantly.
Since they are also digging up the tree roots, of course the soil keeps falling downward.
If heavy rain comes after the plant is completed, the mountain will collapse.”
In the Oi district of Okayama City as well, there is a plan to cut down about 186 hectares of forest, equivalent to 39 Tokyo Domes, and install a mega-solar facility.
Hidenori Kayano, head of the district neighborhood federation, expressed concern.
“We learned of the plan in February last year.
A company from Tokyo intends to cut the trees, turn the mountains bald, and install as many as 276,000 solar panels.
They have already acquired nearly 90 percent of the land.
Suitable flat land is becoming scarce, but panels themselves have become cheaper, so mountain forests are being targeted.
They probably believe it will still be profitable even after subtracting the cost of cutting into the mountains.
The same thing is happening all over Japan.”
Under the banner of eco-friendliness, 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.
Much of the area directly downstream from the planned site is designated as a sediment disaster warning zone.
According to specialists, the planned development site consists of soft decomposed granite soil, and the roots of trees such as konara oaks are somehow holding the ground together.
That is why, during this latest heavy rain, landslides occurred even before construction had begun.
So if trees are cut down over such a vast area, even worse mountain collapses may occur, and that is terrifying.
We have submitted petitions and resolutions of opposition to the prefecture and city, but Okayama Prefecture promotes itself as the ‘Land of Sunshine’ and is attracting solar power projects…”
If the “Land of Sunshine” refers to the blazing sun after sediment disasters, 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.
“Generally speaking, the roots of trees growing on mountains support the topsoil and suppress the collapse and failure of the surface layers of slopes.
Therefore, once the trees are gone, the surface slips and landslides become more likely.”

Far from eco-friendly.

Even so, today’s solar power bubble seems to have learned nothing from the lessons of Fukushima.
Professor Koji Okamoto of the University of Tokyo Graduate School points out, “The Fukushima accident caused enormous suffering to local residents.
Similarly, solar power generation also needs to be strictly managed by the authorities.
However, because solar power spread so suddenly, there are absolutely no regulations,” and he continues.
“Placing solar panels on mountain slopes is the worst possible choice.
From the standpoint of safety, they should be installed in vast open areas where nothing else exists.
But under present conditions, anyone can build them anywhere if they wish.
As a result, cases have become problematic, such as in Hokuto City, Yamanashi Prefecture, where solar panels have been installed haphazardly on steep slopes after forests were cut down, or attempts in Suwa City, Nagano Prefecture, to strip bare the area around a national park and place panels there.”
What is not being considered, he says, is how much inconvenience and damage this imposes on local residents.
Professor Okamoto also touches on the essential weakness of solar power generation.
“It cannot generate electricity at night.
Also, not only on rainy or snowy days, but even when it becomes slightly cloudy, the amount of electricity generated falls considerably.
Therefore, to make use of solar power, storage batteries capable of holding large amounts of electricity generated during the daytime are essential, but the current storage systems are functionally insufficient.
Innovation is indispensable, but considering current technological capabilities, it is utterly unrealistic to develop inexpensive storage systems with sufficient performance within the next ten or twenty years.”
Mr. Narabayashi, quoted earlier, adds.
“In Japan, the average daily hours suitable for solar power generation are about six hours.
Because the clear-sky rate is only about 50 percent, the actual operating rate of solar power generation is no more than 12.5 percent.
And even so, its share of electricity is only 3 percent.
Even when hydropower and wind power are added, renewable energy totals only 14 percent, with the remaining roughly 84 percent relying on thermal power generation.
However, thermal power emits large amounts of CO2 and is the least environmentally friendly.”
Japan, where most nuclear plants are not operating, is 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.
Among European countries, Germany, which like Japan has shut down half of its nuclear plants and shifted to coal-fired thermal power, emits a high 450 grams.
By contrast, France, which supplies 78 percent of its electricity with nuclear power, emits 46 grams, and Denmark, which generates 49 percent of its electricity from wind power, emits 174 grams.
In short, Japan, where eco is proclaimed the loudest, is precisely the country that is not eco-friendly.”
Furthermore, as you know, the CO2 emitted in this way is regarded as a cause of global warming, which now frequently brings torrential rains that were once considered unprecedented.
Solar power whose dangers are scarcely considered, and the resulting increase in CO2 and climate change.
It would hardly be an exaggeration to say that our country is now layering one man-made disaster upon another.
Then what should be done.
Professor Okamoto offers this proposal.
“There are areas in which solar power is superior and areas in which nuclear power is superior, so both must be used wisely.”
“It is wrong to conclude that because there are malicious cases all solar panels are bad, since there are more operators doing things properly.
Most nuclear plants are also proper and convenient, yet because of the Fukushima accident people came to think all of them were bad.
But rather than looking at only one part and assigning a circle or a cross, we should look at the whole and judge accordingly.”
Just as there is no immortality in this world, there is no policy or energy source without a negative side.
Therefore, whether it is solar power or nuclear power, we must calmly discern both the positive and the negative, use them wisely, and strictly regulate what must be strictly regulated.
There is no other way to prevent man-made disasters.
What is being asked of us is not to clutch at straws, that is, to remain calm.