- New houses in Tokyo to install solar power panels to cut household carbon emissions.
- The Tokyo Metropolitan Government aims to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
According to a new regulation recently passed by the Japanese capital’s local assembly, all new houses in Tokyo built by large-scale homebuilders after April 2025 must install solar power panels to cut household carbon emissions.
The mandate, the first of its kind for a Japanese municipality, requires about 50 major builders to equip homes of up to 2,000 square metres (21,500 square feet) with renewable energy power sources, mainly solar panels.
Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike noted last week that 4% of buildings in the city have recently installed solar panels. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government aims to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared with 2000 levels.
Japan, the world’s fifth-largest carbon emitter, has committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 but faces difficulty as it has relied heavily on coal-burning thermal power after most of its nuclear reactors were in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima disaster.