The country’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry followed up on Edano’s remarks, which were made at the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks meeting in New York, by saying that Japan is hoping for assistance from other nations that can provide expertise in green building and related disciplines.
“We will create eco-towns that are fully equipped with district heating utilising plant matter and biomass from the region and cultivate features of communities that thoroughly foster public welfare,” Edano said. “We will proceed by moving forward with the world’s most advanced reconstruction plan, with a vision of going beyond mere restoration to the previous state and instead create a truly marvellous Tohoku region and indeed a marvellous Japan.”
Japan’s trade minister has also reportedly set power-saving targets to preserve its power infrastructure, calling on energy consumers to cut consumption by one quarter.
Reduced power consumption is likely to alleviate the pressure from the power utilities serving the worst affected areas of Japan, including Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) and Tohoku Electric Power.
At the same time, for the short-term, TEPCO is seeking to make use of electricity interchange with other power companies in neighbouring countries through interregional interchange lines, while also looking to restore coal-fired plants.
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