Energy and Environment Delegation to Japan with Sasakawa USA

peace to the world

from time immemorial

cherry blossoms

–   
19th century Japanese poet Issa

As Washingtonians brace themselves for what the Japanese
call Sakura, or cherry blossom season, New America’s Resource Security
program will be traveling to Japan with a group of energy security and climate
change experts. The trip is a joint project with Sasakawa USA, a
non-governmental organization dedicated to promoting US-Japan relations.

Energy security has long been an abiding concern for Japan, which
is today about 90% dependent on imported energy, almost all of it fossil fuels.
At the same time, Japan pledged a 26% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions
(relative to 2013) at the Paris Climate Summit. Both energy security and
climate change became far more problematic challenges for Japan in 2011, when
the Tohuku earthquake and tsunami triggered the nuclear disaster at Fukushima.
As a result, most of Japan’s 45 nuclear power plants remain offline today.

In fact, the New America delegation will travel to Fukushima on
the eve of the 6th anniversary of the disaster to meet with local officials,
visit a cultural museum, and talk to experts at the Fukushima Renewable Energy
Institute.

Throughout our stay, the group will meet with a range of Japanese
officials and experts from the Prime Minister’s office; the New Energy and
Industrial Technology Organization; the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and
Industry; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; the legislature; the Tokyo Electric
Power Company; the Institute for Global Environment Strategies; the Ministry of
Defense; the Japan External Trade Organization; the Ministry of Environment,
the Institute of Energy Economics; and the Toyota Corporation.

The trip, under the SEED program (Sasakawa USA Emerging Expert
Delegation), is designed to be an education and engagement opportunity for
American policymakers. I’ll be leading the delegation, which I am particularly
delighted to do: I’ve worked on US-Japan policies at times in my career, but
have never actually been to Japan. This is typical of most of our group, which
is perhaps better described as early bloomers than emerging experts. New
America Program Associate Emily Gallagher will be part of the group, along with
New America Fellow Dr. Nadya Bliss, a prominent computer scientist and Director
of the Global Security Initiative at ASU; our newest Resource Security Fellow,
Michael Wu, a former Air Force energy official and Army reservist with long
experience in energy security, and New America Fellow Bina Venkataraman, who
also directs Global Policy Initiatives at the Broad Institute of Harvard and
MIT. Jon Powers, the former Federal Chief Sustainability Officer (and also an
Army veteran) will join us, along with Kate Gordon, the Senior Advisor at the
Paulson Institute, and Tarak Shah, most recently the Chief of Staff and Senior
Advisor to the Undersecretary of Energy for Science and Energy.

Coming right on the heels of troubling campaign rhetoric followed
by the Japanese Prime Minister’s very successful first visit to President
Trump, this trip should be very interesting, indeed.