ajor shift in political culture.
Schulz says this is because" Japan developed so fast during its industrialization. All the mindset is just adding new supplies, and so far, he says, that mindset still hasn't changed much. Despite all the talk about renewables and efficiency here, Schulz says nearly all of the investments in new energy projects since Fukushima have been in conventional generation.
And then there's the question of Japan's nuclear industry itself, an industry that includes both companies that operate nuclear plants and companies that design and build them. Rikkyo University's Andrew DeWit says the industry has no intention of giving up its huge share of the two hundred billion dollar Japanese electricity market, the third largest in the world.
The tension was on display just this month, when the mayors of three major cities, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe, called on their local utility to provide a specific timetable for phasing out nuclear power. The move came after the utility defended nuclear energy and only provided general assurances that it would pursue renewables.
The government has been sending similarly mixed signals. This despite what seems to be strong anti-nuclear sentiment among the Japanese people. A poll conducted this month found that 80 percent of Japanese want to phase out nuclear power.
Ultimately, DeWit says the momentum is building, and a new energy economy is all but inevitable here.
DeWit says "that structure of vested interests is in eclipse" over the long haul. "The question is how quickly does that process happen."
Like so much of Japan's recovery over the last year, change has been slow to come. But there are signs that the country is moving in a new direction. Just look at Tokyo's giant electric billboards. When they came back on after last spring's disasters, many of them had had their neon bulbs replaced with energy saving LED's.