Japan's New Energy Policy Fully Supports Efficient Lighting

Japan's "Energy Basic Plan" revised in 2010 proposed that the household carbon dioxide emissions in 2030 need to be reduced by 50% compared with 1990, because Japan's lighting power consumption accounts for more than one-fifth of daily electricity consumption, 2005 About 15% of the carbon dioxide emitted from the use of electricity in Japan comes from lighting. Therefore, the Japanese government wants to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and the use of high-efficiency lighting such as LEDs will be an indispensable condition.

The Japanese government expects that by 2020, 100% of the lighting fixtures on the market will be highly efficient. In 2030, the lighting fixtures in use will also be 100% replaced with high-efficiency lighting (still less than 2% at present). The target proposes a schedule of policy implementation. The focus of the policy implementation from 2010 to 2015 is to increase the luminous efficiency of LED lighting to 200 lm/W through research and development; the luminous efficiency of OLED lighting will be increased to 130 lm/W, and the production cost will be reduced in order to achieve practical goals. The current research and development plan is led by the “NE Energy”, an independent administrative agency under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan.

In addition, the Japanese government has also proposed policy incentives to encourage companies and people to use LED lighting products. In Japan's state-level policy, companies that offer tax reduction concessions and forced energy use are switching to energy-saving products. Many local governments also provide local-level energy-saving products and LED lighting subsidies. The subsidy amount and related regulations introduced by Japan's counties and cities vary from each other, and most of them adopt the method of combining LED in other energy-saving products and sharing the same subsidy program. For example, in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, if a standard LED lighting product is used, a subsidy of one-fifth of the amount will be applied.

The application status of each subsidy policy has been actively promoted, indicating that the Japanese people are highly interested in energy-saving products. The popularity of LED lighting is not only a positive target for the Japanese government. For Taiwanese companies who wish to enter or enter the Japanese lighting market, the Japanese LED lighting policy also provides a clear direction for the future development of LED lighting.