Robin Nicholson
MPhil Candidate in Japanese Studies 2023-2025
My master’s research examines continuity and change in Japan’s post-2011 energy security and industrial policy. I focus on Japan’s implementation of its hydrogen strategy, which coincides with the government’s Green Growth and Green Transformation (GX) strategies and Keidanren’s Society 5.0 plan unveiled between 2020 and 2022, which all aim to combine Japan’s economic growth with environmental conservation by greening and decarbonising the economy.
Japan wants to create a ‘hydrogen society’, where hydrogen is used in all sectors of the economy. Through hydrogen, Japan aims to increase domestic energy security and self-sufficiency, boost green industrial growth with fuel-cell vehicles and hydrogen-based technology for export overseas, and meet its global carbon emissions reductions targets by 2050. Japan also intends to lead in establishing global regulations governing international hydrogen supply chains and technology (Naikakufu 2023). Hydrogen is not new for Japan, having existed in various iterations through cycles of hype and crash since 1972. In this latest iteration, since 2014, the government has been promoting its hydrogen strategy and using green industrial policy tools such as long-term strategies, targets, and financing towards this. Yet, as many countries and companies are currently reducing or abandoning their hydrogen production targets and strategies, Japan is persisting.
This thesis therefore draws on industrial policy, green growth, and energy transition literature to ask: How is the Japanese government, in collaboration with industry, local government and international counterparts, implementing the hydrogen strategy as part of its energy transition and greenhouse gas reduction targets?
This thesis aims to identify and assess the stakeholders, economic and energy security benefits and challenges of successfully implementing the hydrogen strategy. I hope to contribute new findings to literature on green industrial policy and the viability of new energy sources. Japan’s implementation may also provide a case study for future comparative cross-national research on renewable energy policy implementation amid the global climate crisis.
Supervisor: Prof Hugh Whittaker
College: St Antony’s College
Previous Degree Programme: BA (Hons) History and International Relations with Japanese from the University of Exeter. My undergraduate IR dissertation “Is Japan Normalising?” examined recent shifts in Japan’s security identity and practices.
