1. Publication of Amended Framework

On 6 June 2023, the “Basic Hydrogen Strategy (Amendment)” (“Amended Hydrogen Strategy”) was published by the Japanese ministerial conference on renewable energy and hydrogen, which amends the original strategy published in 2017 (“Original Hydrogen Strategy”).

Since the issuance of the “Carbon Neutrality Declaration for 2050” at a special session of the Diet of Japan in October 2020, the Japanese government has been actively working on “carbon neutrality,” which has recently been attracting attention as a GX (i.e. Green Transformation) measure that aims to transform the entire economic and social system along with carbon neutrality. Hydrogen energy is a combustion-based energy source that can also be used to produce CO2, and expected to contribute to the carbon neutralization of society as a whole as a clean energy source that does not emit CO2 when burned, and is considered an important energy source in relation to carbon neutrality and GX.

In this regard, efforts to promote hydrogen energy have been made based on the Original Hydrogen Strategy1, while various initiatives have been undertaken to date. The Amended Hydrogen Strategy presents the policy to review the issues and actions toward achieving carbon neutrality in 2050, based on the progress of hydrogen policies and technologies to date.

In summary the Amended Hydrogen Strategy provides for (i) the policy for social implementation of hydrogen in Japan, (ii) basic strategy, (iii) vision for safe utilization of hydrogen, and (iv) stance for strengthening the competitiveness of the hydrogen industry. In this newsletter, we are going to address items (ii) – (iv) referred in the Amended Hydrogen Strategy.