Normalized injustices in the national energy discourse: A critical analysis of the energy policy framework in Japan through the three tenets of energy justice

Abstract

This review provides a new perspective on issues about Japan's energy policy, emphasizing inherent justice failings in the country's energy policy framework—energy security, economic efficiency, environment, and safety (3E + S). To do so, we integrated a conceptual framework of energy justice synthesized from a review of the energy justice literature into a review of Japan's energy policy discourses, particularly the positioning of the 3E + S framework and its institutional basis in relation to the changes after the Fukushima nuclear disaster. The analysis revealed that besides a few fruitless attempts to integrate aspects of justice into energy policymaking in the immediate aftermath of Fukushima, the energy policy framework enforces the energy security paradigm of the post-oil shock period and carries inherent justice failings. This points to the normalization effect of injustices through institutionalization under the influence of the nuclear power industry. The analysis indicates a need to rethink the current 3E + S framework to integrate a framework of energy justice that addresses the inherent justice failings into energy policy decision-making beyond the energy security and economic growth paradigm, increasingly urgent needs as Japan works toward achieving its net-zero CO2 commitment and its overall climate-change alleviation goals by 2050.