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Normalized injustices in the national energy discourse: A critical analysis of the energy policy framework in Japan through the three tenets of energy justice

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  • Hartwig, Manuela
  • Emori, Seita
  • Asayama, Shinichiro

Abstract

This review provides a new perspective on issues about Japan's energy policy, emphasizing inherent justice failings in the country's energy policy framework—energy security, economic efficiency, environment, and safety (3E + S). To do so, we integrated a conceptual framework of energy justice synthesized from a review of the energy justice literature into a review of Japan's energy policy discourses, particularly the positioning of the 3E + S framework and its institutional basis in relation to the changes after the Fukushima nuclear disaster. The analysis revealed that besides a few fruitless attempts to integrate aspects of justice into energy policymaking in the immediate aftermath of Fukushima, the energy policy framework enforces the energy security paradigm of the post-oil shock period and carries inherent justice failings. This points to the normalization effect of injustices through institutionalization under the influence of the nuclear power industry. The analysis indicates a need to rethink the current 3E + S framework to integrate a framework of energy justice that addresses the inherent justice failings into energy policy decision-making beyond the energy security and economic growth paradigm, increasingly urgent needs as Japan works toward achieving its net-zero CO2 commitment and its overall climate-change alleviation goals by 2050.

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  • Hartwig, Manuela & Emori, Seita & Asayama, Shinichiro, 2023. "Normalized injustices in the national energy discourse: A critical analysis of the energy policy framework in Japan through the three tenets of energy justice," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:174:y:2023:i:c:s0301421523000162
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2023.113431
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