The Japan Times Monday, April 25, 2016 5G7 Kitakyushu Energy Ministerial Meeting

Leading the way to new energy
The G7 Energy Ministerial Meeting will
be held in Kitakyushu on May 1 and 2, at
which global issues on security and sustainability of energy will be discussed by
the energy ministers of the Group ofSeven — Japan, Britain, Canada, France,Germany, Italy and the United States —as well as the European Union, the International Energy Agency and otherorganizations.
The Kitakyushu meeting is one of 11meetings Japan will host this year, typicalfor those countries hosting G-7 summits.
Hosting duties rotate among the sevencountries, with each hosting the main
summit meeting, as well as ministerial
meetings on topics such as energy, science and technology, agriculture anddiplomacy.
Kitakyushu, which was selected in June
2011 as the first green growth model city
in Asia by the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development (OECD),
is an ideal municipality to host the energy
ministers meeting, as the environment
and energy have been key points for thecity.
In the early 20th century, the city was
the driving force of Japan’s economic
growth, relying heavily on the operationsof the Imperial Steel Works, Japan(Yawata Steel Works).
Unfortunately, the industrial success
led the city to experience serious pollution problems in the 1960s.
Since then, the city has worked withthe private sector on cleaner production
methods and energy conservation toreduce emissions of soot and harmfulsubstances. The measures proved successful and companies in the city managed to achieve greener operations
without experiencing financial harm.
These experiences were major influences on the city’s environmental policies, leading to the recognition by theOECD.
After the March 11 disaster in 2011, as
calls for smarter uses of energy haveintensified, Kitakyushu has strengthened
measures to produce renewable energy
and consume energy in a smarter manner.
The coastal area of Hibikinada is anenergy hub for the city. It has windmills
on land and offshore, taking advantage ofthe heavy winds in the area. The marine
windmills are the first of their kind on theSea of Japan coast.

(Publicity)

At the center of innovative energy policies
Hiroshi Ogawa
fukuoka governor

We sincerely welcome
your visit to our prefecture for the G7 Energy MinisterialMeeting in Kitakyushu.
For the international community, securing a stable supply ofsustainable energy
has become an extremely importantmission. It has become especially important in Japan after the Great East
Japan Earthquake for each community
to take initiatives on their own energy
policies from two sides — the efficientuse of energy on the demand side andthe promotion of diversified energy
supplies on the supply side.
Fukuoka Prefecture is one of the regions with the most innovative energy
policies in Japan. Following the implementation of the renewable energy
feed-in tariff system, Fukuoka Prefecture has been Japan’s number one
producer of mega-solar energy. The
prefecture is ranked second in the pro-Balance between growth and the environment

Community energy management system is used in an office building in Kitakyushu. city of kitakyushu

Additionally, the Hibikinada area isalso home to legacy energy as well, functioning as a key spot for importing liquid
natural gas and storing oil and coal.
That makes an ideal combination, giving the area massive potential as the center of power generation via wind power,
as well as high-efficiency thermal power.
The area earned the honor of being
named a “Next Generation Energy Park”
from the Ministry of Economy, Trade andIndustry in 2007, the first such recognition in Japan.
The city is aiming to make the area a
hub of wind power generation and, taking advantage of geographical proximity,
sees the potential to spread the technology throughout Asia.
Kitakyushu is also making strides inthe smart use of energy. The government
in 2010 designated four municipalities
and regions as smart model communities
and provides subsidies for their energy
projects. Kitakyushu is one of the four.
Kitakyushu’s smart energy projectseeks to create the appropriate social

structures for a low-carbon society byinnovating lifestyles, business styles andurban planning styles by implementing
the “Community Energy Management
System,” or CEMS, “Building Energy
Management System,” or BEMS and“Home Energy Management System,” orHEMS.
For example, the city set up a system tomonitor household power usage, allowing them to pinpoint peak energy consumption. By knowing peak times,
households can adjust their consumption, reducing usage at times of highdemand. Also, many facilities haveinstalled energy-saving systems, using
efficient appliances and other equipment.
Additionally, the city built theKitakyushu City Residents Solar Power
Plant in 2013, under an unprecedented
plan that saw residents’ purchase of public bonds and other funds pay for the construction and operation of the plant,
while the plant paid out a portion of profits to the residents in the form of interest

Left: windmills along the coastal area of Hibikinada; Right: a hydrogen station  city of kitakyushu

payments. Such plans help households
develop awareness of the importance ofrenewable energy.
To promote more efficient connections
between power producers and consumers, the city established Kitakyushu
Power Co., of which the city owns 25 percent and various area companies holdthe rest, in December. The city dispatchessome staff to the company, which purchases electricity generated by burning
garbage at incinerators in the city to supply power to public facilities.
The company, which began operationin April, also has plans to purchase electricity from windmills and other renewable energy sources in the Hibikinada
area and sell it to local companies.
As part of another effort to be “smart,”
the city created Kitakyushu Hydrogen
Town in collaboration with the Research
Association of Hydrogen Supply/Utilization Technology. The move is part of
Fukuoka Prefecture’s Hydrogen Strategy(a.k.a. Hy-Life), in which the cities of Kitakyushu and Fukuoka work together. The
benefits of hydrogen as an energy source
are clean emissions and its abundanceon the planet.
Fukuoka Prefecture supports the twocities with research and development onhydrogen production, transport, storageand use as fuel.
Kitakyushu Hydrogen Town supplies
hydrogen through pipelines to houses,
public facilities and other structures withhydrogen fuel cells.
The city has also been working in cooperation with Asian cities on the environment for more than 30 years, sharing
know-how from its experience of resolving pollution problems. It has been collaborating with the Japan International
Cooperation Agency and the Kitakyushu
International Techno-cooperative Association.
It has accepted 7,800 people from 151
countries and regions for training andsent more than 180 experts to 25 countries to offer training on manufacturing

KITAKYUSHU

Since the start of operations at the former
state-owned Imperial
Steel Works, Japan, thefacilities of which wereadded to the UNESCOWorld Heritage list lastyear, the city of Kitakyushu has continued
to play a leading role inthe modernization of Japan’s industries.
After first overcoming the serious environmental pollution that arose as a result of industrial development, weapplied measures to save energy andconserve natural resources, and introduced new energy resources to give
shape to environmentally friendly energy policies. As a result, in June 2011, thecity was selected by the Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development as a green growth model city, thefirst in Asia, where environmental preservation and economic growth stand on
the same ground. We are also engaged
in international environmental cooperation and technical assistance projects
with developing nations, utilizing thetechnologies and know-how gained in
the course of overcoming past environmental pollution.
Those measures have been highly acclaimed, and we were selected as thehost city for the G7 Energy Ministerial
Meeting.
On the days of the meeting, we will befully prepared to welcome not only theministers, but also accompanying officials and others visiting our city. Additionally, we will be disseminating
information to both domestic and overseas markets on our energy and industry
measures. This includes the robot industry in our city, measures promoted by
the city of Kitakyushu and Fukuoka Prefecture to create a hydrogen society andour innovative energy and environment
policies embodied in our smart community and hydrogen initiatives.
We also hope that our guests will takethe time to enjoy all the attractions that
Kitakyushu has to offer, including popular sightseeing spots, delicious seafoodand mountain delicacies.
Lastly, I would like to offer my best
wishes for the success of the meeting.
We hope that you will have an enjoyable
visit in our city and will leave happy thatyou had a chance to visit Kitakyushu.

and the environment.
The city has been involved in environmental cooperation with Asian cities,
including Phnom Penh, Surabaya, Indonesia, Hai Phong, Vietnam and Dalian,
China.
In Phnom Penh, Kitakyushu has been
cooperating on the development of watersupply infrastructure, achieving a
24-hour drinkable water supply, anaccomplishment praised as the “miracleof Phnom Penh.”
Kitakyushu helped Surabaya reduce
industrial waste to clean rivers and Hai
Phong with water purification, energysaving technology and measures against
air pollution. The city also proposed theDalian Environmental Model Zone Proj-ect, resulting in dramatically improved
environmental conditions in the Chinesecity.
Kitakyushu is also blessed with many
places of interest for tourists, including
several UNESCO World Heritage sites.
The 23 sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial
Revolution were registered as World Heritage sites in 2015. One of them, the Imperial Steel Works, Japan, which greatly
contributed to the development of Japanin the early 20th century, is in Kitakyushu.
As such, energy and the environment
have historically been at the center ofKitakyushu’s development and it is Kitakyushu’s mission to continue to thrive asa city leading the world in energy and theenvironment.

Kenji Kitahashi
kitakyushu mayor

welcomes
G7 Energy Ministerial Meeting— It’s old and new —History and future, culture and industry, nature and urbanity, tranquility and liveliness;it’s a city where two contrasting things coexist.
Transformative Meetings
We offer an excellent blend of tourism experiencesin Kitakyushu
coupled with state-of-the-art MICE facilities.

Kitakyushu

duction of renewable energy, some ofwhich is produced at home.
We are focusing on hydrogen, an element with a high-energy conversion
rate that could be used in various
forms of clean energy. In 2004, withthe vision of creating a hydrogen energy society, we founded the Fukuoka
Strategy Conference for Hydrogen Energy, a collaborative organization comprised of all Japan energy relatedparties in the industrial, academic andpublic sectors – the first of its kind inJapan. The organization also actively
promotes the Fukuoka Hydrogen Strategy (a.k.a. Hy-Life Project) that focuses
on research and development, thecommercialization of hydrogen andfuel cell batteries and human resourcedevelopment.
The prefecture is not only a place forinnovative energy policies, but also
home to industrial clusters of the automotive and robot industries. The prefecture boasts many attractive tourism
spots, delicious food, unique culture
and excellent agricultural products. I
am confident that visitors to our prefecture will enjoy the many things wehave to offer.

nLearn for FueLocal Cuisin

yster
Buzen Sea OmTOTO Museu

By Train (To Kokura Station):

Kanmon Puffer Fish

From Hakata (Fukuoka) station:
Sanyo Shinkansen Super Express train(15 min.)
From Shin-Osaka station:
Tokaido/Sanyo Shinkansen SuperExpress train (140 min.)Kokura Beef

Relax

Kyushu Railway
History Museum

Kitakyushu Museum of
Natural History & Human History

Kitakyushu International Convention Zone

Fukuoka

OsakaKitakyushu

Tokyo
By Air:From Tokyo/Haneda
To Fukuoka Airport(90 min.)
To Kitakyushu Airport(90 min.)

The Kitakyushu International Convention
Zone is directly connected to Sanyo Shinkansen
Super Express train exit of JR Kokura Station,
only five minutes away on foot.
Featuring an international conference
center, exhibition center and hotels, it isideal location for large-scale conventions andis also conveniently located near Fukuoka
Airport — only 30 minutes away by subwayand Sanyo Shinkansen Super Express train.
Another great benefit is that event costs are
significantly lower than other big cities in Japansuch as Tokyo.

erience
Cultural Exp
Kokura Castle Japanese Garden

Kitakyushu International
Conference Center

Kitakyushu Convention Bureau http://convention-a.jp/en/

teria Garden
Kawachi Wis

teau
Hiraodai Limestone Pla

Hakama Skirt-likeTrousers and a RickshawyTea Ceremon“GURURICH! KITA Q SHU” KITAKYUSHU CITY TRAVEL GUIDE http://www.gururich-kitaq.com/en/

CITY OF KITAKYUSHU http://www.city.kitakyushu.lg.jp/english/

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