Summary: | 碩士 === 國立政治大學 === 國家發展研究所 === 105 === Japan is noted for its low energy endowment but high energy efficiency among the global top energy consuming nations. In this study, collection of the past Japanese energy policies from 1945 to 2011, comparison of the political stances on the energy strategies between the two Japanese ruling parties, Liberal Democratic Party and The Democratic Party, and investigation on factors causing a change of Japan’s energy policy post Fukushima contributed to outlining the pattern of Japan’s energy governance. This study found that Japan’s intervening in its the post-war domestic energy market by means of a string of policy instruments has successfully made Japan overcome the predicament of high energy demands out of low energy reserves, further achieve the edge of high energy efficiency, and therefore create its outstanding economic growth. Nevertheless, after experiencing another energy predicament post Fukushima, Japan made more effort on the intervention into its energy market to transform its domestic energy consumption structure with a view to maintaining high energy self-sufficient rates and low GHGs emissions. To conclude, although Japan is a nation of insufficient energy resources, its energy policies reveal the trait that the state intervenes in the energy market by the top-down governance approach to make its way to break through the energy constraints, creating a nearly half-century’s economic prosperity. Besides, we also conclude that Japan plays three major roles in the domain of global energy governance: 1. a follower of global GHGs emission abatement and global energy security enhancement, 2. a demonstrator on regional energy cooperation and, 3. a model of building global nuclear power safety.
|