A proposed shift in Japan's energy policy could mean higher electricity costs for Sharp and its fellow manufacturers. Sharp—whose biggest businesses are liquid-crystal display panels and television sets—is a member Keidanren, a powerful Japanese business lobby opposed to the proposed renewable energy bills.
However, Sharp could benefit from the new policies, which would require utilities to buy up electricity that comes from renewable sources. The company is Japan's largest supplier of solar panels, which accounted for about 9% of Sharp's overall revenue of ¥3.02 trillion (US$38.57 billion) in the last fiscal year.
Sharp President Mikio Katayama sat down for a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal at the company's headquarters in Osaka. Edited Excerpts:
WSJ: How has the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident changed the nature of discussions about renewable energy?
Mr. Katayama: In recent years, most people have talked about solar power as one of the ways to address global warming. Reducing carbon emissions was the main incentive for promoting renewable energy. If you just focus on the issue of global warming, you could argue that using more nuclear power is already sufficient.
Since the nuclear accident, discussions are no longer limited to the context of global warming. As people have become more aware of the risks nuclear power involves, Japan is now asking itself a more fundamental question of how to secure energy, like it once did during the oil crises in the 1970s. Read the full report here.
Source: by Juro Osawa, Wall Street Journal.
