viii PREFACE
The NTNU Japan Program originates in the 1980s and early 1990s,
when a number of NTNU scientists and engineers conducted research
at Japanese universities as visiting scholars. Based on their very favorable
experiences and interest from Norwegian industry, NTNU established its
Japan Program in 1998. Since the Program’s establishment, it has offered
courses on Japanese language, society, and politics, and on East Asian
politics. Another hallmark of the Program is its annual Japan Seminar,
which has become a leading venue for presenting and promoting the latest
research on Japan and East Asia in North Europe and beyond. It also
is a cross-disciplinary Seminar, and especially promotes cross-disciplinary
cooperation between engineering and natural sciences on the one hand
and the social sciences on the other.
The present volume emerged from three NTNU Japan Seminars
focusing on renewable energy. The first, held in April 2016, was held
in conjunction with the annual conference of the Nordic Association for
the Study of Contemporary Japanese Society (NAJS). The second was
held at the Norwegian Embassy in Tokyo in March 2017. This was the
first NTNU Japan Seminar held in Japan, and featured an impassioned
keynote speech by K¯ ono Tar¯ o, a representative of the Lower House of the
Japanese Diet, who has subsequently served as Japan’s Foreign Minister,
and then as Defense Minister. The third NTNU Japan Seminar where the
penultimate drafts of the chapters in this book were presented was held in
Trondheim in October 2018. This seminar featured a keynote address by
Steffen Møller-Holst, Chairman of the Norwegian Hydrogen Forum, on
“Norway’s Green Hydrogen Strategy.”
The central idea underpinning this work, and one of the main missions
of the NTNU Japan Program itself, is to bring together insights from
engineering and the natural sciences on the nature of technological
change together with social science insights on how technology affects
society, and how society affects the development of technology, its diffusion and use. Renewable energy illustrates both the opportunities and the
necessity for promoting this collaboration. For social scientists it seems
to go without saying that we depend on engineers and natural scientists
to get a clear and accurate picture of the current state and changing
nature of technology, a picture that is an absolute prerequisite for us
to understand how technology and technological change affects society,
economics, and politics. Our success in understanding all these fields is
thus increasingly tied to understanding technological change. On the
other hand, the funding, success, and diffusion of innovative technology
The NTNU Japan Program originates in the 1980s and early 1990s,
when a number of NTNU scientists and engineers conducted research
at Japanese universities as visiting scholars. Based on their very favorable
experiences and interest from Norwegian industry, NTNU established its
Japan Program in 1998. Since the Program’s establishment, it has offered
courses on Japanese language, society, and politics, and on East Asian
politics. Another hallmark of the Program is its annual Japan Seminar,
which has become a leading venue for presenting and promoting the latest
research on Japan and East Asia in North Europe and beyond. It also
is a cross-disciplinary Seminar, and especially promotes cross-disciplinary
cooperation between engineering and natural sciences on the one hand
and the social sciences on the other.
The present volume emerged from three NTNU Japan Seminars
focusing on renewable energy. The first, held in April 2016, was held
in conjunction with the annual conference of the Nordic Association for
the Study of Contemporary Japanese Society (NAJS). The second was
held at the Norwegian Embassy in Tokyo in March 2017. This was the
first NTNU Japan Seminar held in Japan, and featured an impassioned
keynote speech by K¯ ono Tar¯ o, a representative of the Lower House of the
Japanese Diet, who has subsequently served as Japan’s Foreign Minister,
and then as Defense Minister. The third NTNU Japan Seminar where the
penultimate drafts of the chapters in this book were presented was held in
Trondheim in October 2018. This seminar featured a keynote address by
Steffen Møller-Holst, Chairman of the Norwegian Hydrogen Forum, on
“Norway’s Green Hydrogen Strategy.”
The central idea underpinning this work, and one of the main missions
of the NTNU Japan Program itself, is to bring together insights from
engineering and the natural sciences on the nature of technological
change together with social science insights on how technology affects
society, and how society affects the development of technology, its diffusion and use. Renewable energy illustrates both the opportunities and the
necessity for promoting this collaboration. For social scientists it seems
to go without saying that we depend on engineers and natural scientists
to get a clear and accurate picture of the current state and changing
nature of technology, a picture that is an absolute prerequisite for us
to understand how technology and technological change affects society,
economics, and politics. Our success in understanding all these fields is
thus increasingly tied to understanding technological change. On the
other hand, the funding, success, and diffusion of innovative technology