13
Japan stands in the lead of the changes headed toward Vision 2050. This is
because it is striving to move forward on becoming a happy low-carbon society in
light of its population aging quickly, its birthrate being low, its population projected
to shrink, and the country being faced with an enormous budget deficit. In short, in
order to maintain affluence and the global environment, Japan is moving forward on
the development of rational recycling systems, making energy use more efficient,
and expanding the use of renewables as it strives to adopt new technologies and
systems and improve productivity to make up for the decrease in population size. To
achieve this, it is becoming increasingly necessary to have venues where hardworking and superior personnel can regularly acquire new knowledge, learn new
ways of thinking, and develop new skills. People who have improved their abilities
to cope with rapid changes can be made to skillfully recycle a variety of elements in
the world around them. Doing so will enable a shift toward becoming a happy
low- carbon society. It is incumbent upon us to design such a complex social system
that includes all these elements, and then have the courage to put it into practice.
Note 1: In the present work, I use the expression “xxx tons of fossil resources.”
The “xxx” figure presented is a carbon conversion that takes into account the proportion of coal to petroleum to natural gas at the time. To express this in terms of
CO 2 volume, multiply the number of tons of fossil resources by 3.1 to get the amount
of CO 2 . Please note that the proportions of coal, petroleum, and natural gas vary
depending on the country and time period under discussion, so some deviations may
arise.
Note 2: “Natural” energy (shizen enerugī) used as a technology used for sustaining
the earth and “renewable” (saisei kanō) energy as used in the present work are the
same thing. Recently, it has become commonplace to speak of “renewable energy”
in English and its equivalent in Japanese for this kind of energy, so I follow that
usage in the present volume.
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing,
adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate
credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and
indicate if changes were made.
The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter’s Creative
Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not
included in the chapter’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by
statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from
the copyright holder.
1.2 What Is Vision 2050?
Japan stands in the lead of the changes headed toward Vision 2050. This is
because it is striving to move forward on becoming a happy low-carbon society in
light of its population aging quickly, its birthrate being low, its population projected
to shrink, and the country being faced with an enormous budget deficit. In short, in
order to maintain affluence and the global environment, Japan is moving forward on
the development of rational recycling systems, making energy use more efficient,
and expanding the use of renewables as it strives to adopt new technologies and
systems and improve productivity to make up for the decrease in population size. To
achieve this, it is becoming increasingly necessary to have venues where hardworking and superior personnel can regularly acquire new knowledge, learn new
ways of thinking, and develop new skills. People who have improved their abilities
to cope with rapid changes can be made to skillfully recycle a variety of elements in
the world around them. Doing so will enable a shift toward becoming a happy
low- carbon society. It is incumbent upon us to design such a complex social system
that includes all these elements, and then have the courage to put it into practice.
Note 1: In the present work, I use the expression “xxx tons of fossil resources.”
The “xxx” figure presented is a carbon conversion that takes into account the proportion of coal to petroleum to natural gas at the time. To express this in terms of
CO 2 volume, multiply the number of tons of fossil resources by 3.1 to get the amount
of CO 2 . Please note that the proportions of coal, petroleum, and natural gas vary
depending on the country and time period under discussion, so some deviations may
arise.
Note 2: “Natural” energy (shizen enerugī) used as a technology used for sustaining
the earth and “renewable” (saisei kanō) energy as used in the present work are the
same thing. Recently, it has become commonplace to speak of “renewable energy”
in English and its equivalent in Japanese for this kind of energy, so I follow that
usage in the present volume.
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing,
adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate
credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and
indicate if changes were made.
The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter’s Creative
Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not
included in the chapter’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by
statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from
the copyright holder.
1.2 What Is Vision 2050?