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With Christmas just around the corner, how are you getting along??

Today, I’d like to introduce an article about energy saving illuminations in Japan.

It is usually the time that major high-streets are beautifully decorated with Christmas lighting in Japan; however, Japan has continuously been trying to save electricity after the earthquake.  In this summer, large scale power saving campaign was taken place, and major companies were largely contributed by changing their opening hours and business days.  In response to this nation-wide movement, some places were decided not to have Christmas decorations with lightings this year.  On the other hand, some places has been receiving attention by using ‘Green Energy’.

"Hyougushi" some rights reserved. flickr

According to the article, ‘Green Energy’ is an energy generated from natural resources such as solar and wind power, and is actively introduced by the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy (ANRE) to be used for Christmas lightings and concerts in the last 3 years.

Last year, a total of 106 shopping malls, hotels and other organizations participated in this Green Energy Christmas campaign.  And 130 organizations were applied for this winter at the time of November.

It seems ANRE once consider calling off this campaign this year in order to give sufficient considerations to those suffering areas in east Japan; however, they decided to continue, aiming at raising public awareness about green energy.

Unfortunately, we cannot deny the fact that renewable energy is not enough to cover all winter illuminations…  However, ANRE issued ‘Green Energy Certificate’ which was widely available to purchase for organizations.  By purchasing this certificate, organizations can contribute to develop and diffuse renewable energy indirectly since those moneys spent to purchase the certificate will be provided to renewable energy companies.  With this method, wider variety of organizations will be able to participate in this campaign even if they don’t have illuminations:-)

Those involved in this Green Energy Christmas campaign include Tokyo Tower Christmas Illumination with solar power (until 25^th Dec), Shinjuku Park Tower with about 100,000 LED light bulbs.  Also, Kobe Luminarie, Keyaki Hiroba square, Osaka Castle keep tower, Matsuyama Castle keep tower were planning to use environment conscious illuminations.

What do you think?

Of course, you could say that completely suspending the event may be the easiest way to save power: however, it will be great if we could deepen our understanding and promote wider use of the energy together by peacefully enjoying the seasonal event:-)

Source: web R25

This is JAPAN Style!