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The residential sector is one of the major sources of greenhouse gases, and as such it is key for achieving decarbonization targets. However, very diverse household characteristics affect energy use and emissions at the household level. Furthermore, demographic transitions characterized by ageing and shrinking in both total and household size can have enduring effects for some of these household characteristics at the societal level. Here, we explore how demographic transitions in Japan may affect the long-term emissions in the residential sector based on the scenarios to the year 2040. First, we draw from a large-scale survey conducted by the Japanese government (9,996 households) to develop a nuanced typology of households using an integrated clustering approach. This helps us identify high variability in emissions and adoption of emission mitigation technologies between households with different characteristics. We found that household size and age both play important role in terms of emissions. Finally, through different scenarios we identify that indeed the projected demographic transitions with the increasing prevalence of smaller and more elderly households in Japan will likely hinder emission mitigation in the residential sector, imposing significant constraints for achieving decarbonization in the long-term.

The aim of this study is to analyze the effects of environmental efficiency of buildings on real estate prices. Therefore, based on the Comprehensive Assessment System for Built Environment Efficiency (CASBEE) of the local government, we investigated 485 apartment buildings assessed by CASBEE Yokohama. The analysis results revealed the following three points: When the Built Environment Efficiency (BEE) value increased by one point, the average unit price increased by 5.5%. A one‐point increase in the BEE value has a positive impact of 1.63% on the annual rate of change of used transaction price. It is economically advantageous to purchase an apartment building with a high BEE value when considering future sales.

Urban household consumption contributes substantially to global greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions. Urban household emissions encompass both direct and indirect emissions, with the former associated with the direct use of fossil fuels and the latter with the emissions embodied in the consumed goods and services. However, there is a lack of consistent and comprehensive datasets outlining in great detail emissions from urban household consumption. To bridge this data gap, we construct an emission inventory of urban household emissions for 52 major cities in Japan that covers around 500 emission categories. The dataset spans from January 2011 to December 2015 and contains 12,384 data records for direct emissions and 1,543,128 records for indirect emissions. Direct emission intensity is provided in g-CO2/JPY to facilitate both future studies of household emission in Japan, as well as act as a reference for the development of detailed household emission inventories in other countries., Measurement(s)carbon dioxide emissionTechnology Type(s)Consumption of GoodsFactor Type(s)urban carbon footprintSample Characteristic - EnvironmentcitySample Characteristic - LocationJapan Machine-accessible metadata file describing the reported data: 10.6084/m9.figshare.15188058

To comprehensively investigate how regional household contribute to national carbon emission, this paper evaluates both the direct and indirect Japanese household carbon‐based emissions by using an environmentally extended input‐output table as well as the regional household consumption inventory. The results indicate that the household sector is the key driving force behind Japan's emissions, and it accounts for approximately 80% of the country's total emissions when indirect emissions are included. Moreover, significant regional differences exist in terms of the carbon footprint, which is in part caused by household and fuel‐type differences found across the country. Finally, this paper suggests that the impact of regional household and fuel‐type differences on Japan's overall carbon footprint should be a primary focus when practitioners design customized strategies to decarbonize Japan at the subnational scale.

Unexpected events such as economic crises and natural disasters can have profound implications for energy systems and climate change mitigation efforts at different levels. Here we explore the national and regional carbon emission patterns (and their drivers) for the main economic sectors in Japan between 2007 and 2015, a period shaped by the 2008 financial crisis and the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake. Following the 2011 earthquake the previously decreasing regional emissions patterns started increasing in practically all regions except Hokkaido. This was mainly due to growing coal use particularly in the Kyushu, Chugoku and Kansai regions. Furthermore, most regions experienced shifts in the dominance of different drivers of emissions over time, with a stronger initial impact from economic effects after the 2008 financial crisis, followed by energy structure after the 2011 earthquake, and then by economic effects and energy intensity. These results offer a more nuanced understanding of how individual events can affect emissions at different periods and levels (national vs. regional) to inform the design of climate change mitigation strategies. Exogenous events in Japan had lasting impacts on the energy mix and on CO2 emissions at the national and regional levels. The 2008 financial crisis mainly affected the economy, whereas the 2011 earthquake influenced energy structure, though the actual impacts vary between regions.

We investigate the automobile preferences of consumers and evaluate financial incentives designed to promote automobiles of higher fuel economy in Japan from sales data. We explore two different groups of consumers, namely, general consumers and selective consumers, according to their fuel economy preferences. Then we estimate the effectiveness of financial incentives and the price sensitivity of such incentives to different groups of consumers. We use ordered logit, linear regression, and simultaneous equations. Estimates suggest that only tax incentives are effective for general consumers, thereby implying a need to improve Japanese policies.

Accelerating global warming has suggested the importance of controlling greenhouse gas emissions associated with human activities. In striving to fulfill the Paris Agreement, China has announced its Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) aimed at reducing its carbon dioxide (CO2) emission intensity by 60–65% in 2030 against the level of 2005. However, China’s INDCs cannot be fulfilled without formulating appropriate schemes for the allocation of carbon emission allowance (CEA) at sub-national scales. To help close the gap in our knowledge, this paper starts with measuring the overall CEA of China by 2030, and then proposes a science-based scheme for CEA allocation by developing an improved zero sum gains-data envelopment analysis (ZSG-DEA) model. It demonstrates that the final CEA of some northern provinces can be cut down as compared to their initial shares and, conversely, most southern provinces experience an increase in their CEA. Comparing the final share of CEA by province with current carbon emissions, we observe that provinces with abundant energy reserves, such as Shanxi, Inner Mongolia and Shaanxi, tend to be operating in a state of overshoot in terms of space for carbon emissions (SCE). In contrast, there remains SCE when it comes to Guangdong, Hunan, Fujian, etc. The remaining provinces, such as Heilongjiang, Hebei and Ningxia, are close to the break-even point. In view of the differing SCE of individual provinces, common but differentiated policies for CO2 emission control would be the key to achieving China’s INDCs. The research findings lay a scientific basis for the Chinese government to make its INDCs come true through inter-provincial collaboration on emission reduction, but also serve as a reference for fueling further scientific discussions and development of schemes for the allocation of responsibility for carbon emissions at multiple scales within and beyond China.

Residential consumption produces carbon emissions through the combustion of primary energy (directly) as well as through the consumption of goods and services (indirectly). To capture the latter indirect emissions, it is common to use producer-price based input-output analysis associated with household monetary expenditures. However, producer-price input-output tables usually do not account for economic transactions and energy flows at the margin. To better understand household indirect emissions from the purchaser perspective, there is a need for a modified input–output modeling approach. To that end, this study attempts to measure the carbon footprint of households in the Tokyo Metropolis, Japan by integrating monthly household consumption inventories into an input–output table of Tokyo. By doing so, the carbon footprint was estimated to be 0.76 tC per household and the total estimated marginal carbon emissions for Tokyo is up to 0.56 MtC. A sectoral breakdown of the total emission coefficients is provided based on purchaser prices and temporal variations in emissions. Findings indicate that within household consumption, Clothing and Services categories contributed most to marginal emissions. The conclusions drawn in this paper are pertinent and policy relevant because they provide relatively accurate information compared to the status quo to inform appropriate policies for guiding residential consumption at the city scale of resolution.

In the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Japan largely moved away from nuclear power generation and turned back towards an energy sector dominated by fossil fuels. As a result, the pace towards reaching emission reduction targets has largely slowed down. This situation indicates that higher emissions will continue to be generated if there is no appropriate and efficient measurement implemented to bridge the energy demand gap. To contribute adequate mitigation policies, a detailed inventory of both CO2 emissions and socioeconomic factors, both at the national and regional level, should be issued. Thereby, this work contributes to a time-series emission with a record of 47 prefectures in Japan as well as their associated socioeconomic features. The compiled emission inventory is based on three major fossil fuels and 26 sectors with careful emission allocations for regional electricity generation. This dataset is uniformly formatted and can be expected to provide vital information to set regional reduction allowances and sectoral reduction priorities., Measurement(s) carbon dioxide emission • Socioeconomic Indicator Technology Type(s) fossil fuel power plant • digital curation Factor Type(s) prefectural carbon emission Sample Characteristic - Environment anthropogenic environment Sample Characteristic - Location Japan Machine-accessible metadata file describing the reported data: 10.6084/m9.figshare.12487604

The transport sector is a major contributor to anthropogenic climate change through the emissions of large amounts of greenhouse gases from fossil fuel combustion. Private vehicles account for almost half of the transport energy demand, and are thus a major target for climate change mitigation efforts. However, emissions from private vehicles can have large variability due to various geographic, demographic and socioeconomic factors. This study aims to understand how such factors affect private vehicle emissions in Japan using a nationally representative survey of household energy consumption (n= 7370) for 2017. The results indicate a large temporal and spatial variability in private vehicle emissions. Annual emissions show three peaks associated with major holiday seasons in winter and summer. Some of the more noteworthy spatial patterns are the higher emissions in prefectures characterized by low population density and mountainous terrain. Income, city size and the fuel-saving driving behavior all have a significant effect on emissions. The results indicate the need for sub-regional and socioeconomically-sensitive mitigation efforts that reflect the very different emission patterns, and the factors affecting them. The strong effect of city size, which is often much more clear-cut than between prefectures, suggests that it is more appropriate to approach transport decarbonization in Japan at the city level.

As cities have an increasingly important role in carbon reduction programs, a good understanding of urban energy usage and associated emissions are hence expected to contribute significantly toward policy aimed at reducing energy use and emissions. In this study, residential carbon footprint is revealed by calculating direct and indirect energy demands. The results show the seasonal variation of each type of energy, as well as carbon emissions leaked across city boundaries. The output indicates that 0.35 tC of emissions were generated per household in Tokyo in 2011, including 0.20 tC generated locally and 0.15 tC generated outside of Tokyo. For carbon leakage, February and October are found to result in the highest total emissions, with leaked emissions found to exceed local emissions from July to October. Based on these results, the obvious solution to reduce residential carbon emissions would be a shift to renewable energy sources away from gas use within Tokyo and power generation outside of Tokyo.

In Japan, the Great East Earthquake caused numerous casualties and the subsequent suspension of operations at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant continues to have an adverse impact on the national energy supply chain. The structural changes in energy supply have served to reinforce the importance of national emissions accounting in promoting overall CO2 reduction policies. However, traditional approaches for evaluating industrial emissions have been criticized for their production-based perspective, which fails to consider emissions embodied in sectoral indirect consumption. The purpose of this study is therefore to understand the sectoral emission transfer. By applying economic input-output tables, detailed sectoral economic interactions can be usefully identified. It was found that the emissions embodied in final consumption generated largely by households. Besides, although emission intensity of manufacturing sector is extremely high in direct emission, agriculture sector is found to exceed other sectors in indirect emission intensities. From the consumption-side, these findings strongly suggest that a high priority be given to mitigation efforts aimed at reducing residential consumption, whist policy priorities are expected to be located on agriculture-related sectors from production-side. The study hence provides insights into how we can better allocate emissions responsibility and set reduction priorities among major economic sectors.

In the Post-Paris Era, urban emissions have received worldwide attention as cities are considered to be responsible for most of the world’s environmental footprint. A better understanding of urban CO2 emissions and their related carbon footprints offers benefits to policymakers interested in promoting effective and efficient low-carbon solutions. In particular, a clear determination of direct and indirect emissions inventories (that is, identification of emissions related to specific sources) can provide a valuable baseline for the planning, assessing, implementing, and monitoring of urban mitigation actions. Focusing on the Japanese urban residential sector, this paper uses an established urban database and emission database based on global-related input-output analysis to systematically analyze household carbon footprints related to energy demand, targeting both direct and indirect energy-related CO2 emissions in Japan’s megacities. The results reveal the city-specific emissions status of Japan’s three major metropolitan areas, showing, for example, that Tokyo is a source of high direct emissions, while Utsunomiya is a significant source of indirect emissions. The study also tentatively concludes that the depopulation of cities can result in higher per capital emissions, both direct and indirect, as they relate to energy demand. Improved sector and spatially explicit information for better mitigation policymaking and environmental education at the urban level is presented. Valuable insights are offered through an in-depth investigation of the relationship between CO2 emissions and urban socioeconomic activities, benefitting future low-carbon city research and practice.

Cities play a crucial role in the implementation of carbon emission mitigation policies since most CO2 emissions are related to energy consumption in urban areas. Recent years, environmentally extended multi-regional input-output tables (EEMRIO) are emerged to reveal regional environment impact considering upstream supply chains crossing regional boundaries. However, city-scale MRIO has not been fully addressed since more focus has been located on national or prefectural level evaluation. For quantifying city-scale emission considering regional energy flow, we apply the input-output table of Tokyo to evaluate energy consumption at the city scale, and the results provides one of the the most detailed sector classification from a wide range of city emission studies. In Japan, Tokyo is considered to be representative of the contemporary Japanese urban energy structure, and its energy consumption and associated CO2 emissions are of major importance when making city-scale carbon mitigation policies. Here, domestic production for Tokyo and other regions is used to quantify the direct and indirect emissions arising from Tokyo final consumption. Our results are divided into sector-specific and fossil fuel source-specific (coal, crude oil, and natural gas) for both direct and indirect emissions. The major findings are as follows: (1) The transportation sector accounts for the largest share of direct emissions in Tokyo. (2) The energy supply, construction, private service sectors account for the largest share of indirect emissions in Tokyo. (3) There are three scopes of emission responsibility evaluated in this study: direct emission before allocation (BE) as 12.88 MtC, after allocation (AE) as 18.91 MtC, and the total including indirect emissions is 27.24 MtC, which is more than twice the direct emissions before allocation. The detailed and energy consumption and emission inventory may be essential for emission responsibility allocation to overcome geographical boundary, therefore, contributes to varied scales of carbon reduction policies.

Japan needs to improve its residential energy efficiency to reduce energy consumption and thus achieve its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets. Understanding the differences in household behavior and energy use is important to evaluate the effect of energy conservation measures. In this study, the authors propose a new method for household energy use modeling based on questionnaire surveys on home appliances and hot water use. Fifteen-minute residential electricity and heat demand profiles with different seasons, household structures and lifestyles are obtained from the survey results, and compared with available statistical data. The replacement effects of refrigerators, TVs and lighting on residential electricity savings, net present value (NPV) and GHG reductions are evaluated using calculated energy demand. Variations in household energy use are considered under different change scenarios in household structure and by conducting an uncertainty analysis based on the Monte Carlo method. The results indicate that GHG emissions can be reduced by purchasing a new refrigerator, and electricity costs can be reduced by installing LED lamps in the living/dining room. It is also found that there is a wide range of uncertainty for NPV and GHG reductions after replacing a TV because different households watch TV for different lengths of time.

Agrivoltaic systems, comprising photovoltaic panels placed over agricultural crops, have recently gained increasing attention. Emerging interest in these systems led us to investigate their influence on rice crops. Various factors affecting rice crop yield, including fertilizer application, temperature, and solar radiation, were directly observed, and measured to evaluate changes associated with the shading rates of photovoltaic systems installed above rice crops. The results suggest that the allowable upper limit of the shading rate for agrivoltaic installations ranges from 27 to 39%, which sustains at least 80% of the rice yield, a condition set by the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries for these systems. If such systems are applied to rice paddies in Japan at 28% density, they could generate 284 million MWh/yr. This is equivalent to approximately 29% of the total Japanese electricity demand, based on 2018 calculations. This projection indicates the potential of agrivoltaic systems for efficient land use and sustainable energy generation.

Which comes first in reducing the Carbon Dioxide (CO2 ) emissions from the transportation sector: consumer preference or technological advancement? Using a series of discrete-choice demand models, we estimate the demand for automobiles in Japan. Our model explicitly allows consumer preferences for fuel economy to evolve over time, and the estimation results confirm the existence of such a change. We then simulate consumer behavior , enabling consumers in 2010 to choose automobiles from 2016, and vice versa. The results imply that both consumer preferences and technological advancement are important—without technological advancement and increases in consumers’ appreciation for fuel-efficient cars, CO 2 emissions cannot be reduced.

Cities accommodate more than half of the world's population and are responsible for most of the global environmental footprints of carbon and resource consumption. Hence, countermeasures to reduce the carbon footprint of cities is critical to confront global and national challenges on climate changes in the “Post Paris Era”. Particularly, carbon emissions arising from the residential sector are of great importance to urban emissions, considering their scale and contribution to the indirect emissions caused by supply chains. Despite much consideration on national or provincial household carbon footprints, there has been little discussion on city-level carbon emissions by source and their correlation with residents-related attributes. Given such a circumstance, the present research explored the indirect household carbon emissions by source and its relationship with potentially affecting attributes through a case study on 49 Japanese prefecture capital-level cities (comprising 47 prefectural capitals and Kitakyushu City and Kawasaki City). We combined data from a national expenditure survey with the Embodied Energy and Emission Intensity Data for Japan Using Input-Output Tables (3EID) to calculate consumption-based carbon footprints. Furthermore, to investigate the correlation between the indirect household carbon footprint (IHCF) and residents-related attributes, we divided IHCF into seven sources (food, accommodation, recreation, education, medical service, energy, and transportation) and analyzed the relation with various attributes. The main results highlight that 1). Spatial unbalanced distribution is observed by IHCF types. 2). Each type of IHCF affected by different socio-economic variables according to stepwise regression analysis result. 3). We found that although total IHCF exhibited a comparatively weak correlation with the selected residents-related attributes, food, transportation, and education separately exhibited significant correlations. The insights obtained in terms of source categories and household-related features of IHCF are expected to provide detailed information for future mitigation policies, i.e., city-level mitigation priority setting.

City-level carbon footprint has been recognized as a useful measure of anthropogenic impact on climate change associated with citizens' activities within the administrative boundary. Although the promotion of consumer responsibility suggests rethinking urban indirect emissions, the detailed methodology is far from satisfactory for realistic applications. Due to the lack of multi-regional input-output tables for most cities, there is a wide application of single regional input-output tables. However, there still lacks further discussion on if there will be an obvious evaluation bias by applying city-level single-regional tables rather than multi-regional ones. To visualize the table coverage on its application consequence, both single- and multi-regional input-output tables were employed to compare disparities in the carbon footprint accounting in the case of Tokyo, Japan. Our analysis shows that the gap of emissions driven by Tokyo's final demand between single- and multi-regional input-output tables was considerably large. Furthermore, the results of multi-regional table were found to be 8.11 MtC higher for coal-generated emissions, 7.83 MtC for crude oil-generated emissions and 2.90 MtC for natural gas-generated emissions than those of the single-regional table. The largest deviation in emissions accounting was observed in the power, gas and heating supply sector, the construction sector and the private service sector. The gap between these two input-output tables was notable for all three types of fossil fuels (coal, crude oil and natural gas). These indicated that coal-generated emissions have been largely ignored by single-regional input-output table. The study highlighted the difference of carbon footprint accounting between these two types of input-output tables. Our findings are intended to assist policymakers and scholars in pinpointing and reallocating sectors that are likely to yield severely biased evaluation of emissions embodied in trade when a multi-regional table is not available.

City is the main place to consume goods and services throughout the world. Among the various consumption terminals, household-level consumption is highly behavior driven, which can be affected by various factors such as household income level, age, living environment etc. However, city-level household emissions characteristics are still not fully understood due to the complexity of consumption behaviors and the lack of the supply chain’s data. To include the environmental responsibility embodied in residential consumption and reveal how it varies among household type and season, this study investigates city-level household consumption as it relates to energy demand using a city-scale input-output model and urban residential consumption inventories. Importantly, age- and month-based emission are analyzed from different aspects such as emission type, source, fuel types and consumption items. Findings indicate that (1) household emissions differ substantially among the various household age groups; older households generally produce higher emissions levels on a per capita basis; (2) decreases in temperature are the main reason for the increased emissions in older households, while this is not a significant factor in younger households; (3) the high per capita household emissions in older households indicate inefficient energy usage among elder citizens, which strongly suggests that aging societies will face long-term emissions increases if appropriate measures are not taken.

Reducing vehicle travel distances may eventually be a promising option for reducing oil dependence. However, the factors affecting travel distances have not yet been investi-gated, which makes the development of effective transportation-related policy difficult. Therefore, we explore factors influencing travel distances in Japan, namely, income group, region, interest in purchasing a hybrid car, travel purposes, vehicle type, and demographics, using data collected through surveys. Subsequently, we examine whether the factors increasing travel distances also increase fuel usage in the transportation sec-tor. Several findings emerge: First, hybrid ownership is positively correlated to travel distances regardless of income level and interest in purchasing a hybrid car (hybrid interest). Second, income level has a positive relationship with travel distances. How-ever, individuals in the high-income group show negative coefficients towards travel distances. The results also show that factors increasing travel distance also positively affect fuel usage except for hybrid ownership. For example, hybrid ownership is posi-tively correlated with both travel distances and fuel consumption, which is a form of the “green paradox.” Thus, the contribution of this study is that it provides evidence for the existence of direct rebound effects and wealth inequality in travel behavior and indicates the need for implementing policies based on individuals’ socio-demographical identity and type of vehicle ownership.

Since the Great East Japan Earthquake and Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011, both energy consumption and CO2 emissions have been increasing in the residential sector of Japan. For this reason, smart meters have received much attention as a way to provide energy-use feedback to households and thereby encourage energy conservation. In order to provide effective feedback, it is necessary to take into account the lifestyle of each household, but little work has been done to develop a methodology to determine the relationship between a household’s lifestyle and its electricity consumption. This paper proposes two methods that identify a household’s lifestyle from electricity use data. By using a frequency analysis of weekly load profiles, we verified that, except in winter (December 2013–February 2014), the average daily consumption of morning-oriented lifestyles is 5.3% less than that of night-oriented lifestyles. The results of cluster analyses of each household’s daily electric load profiles suggest that most households consume less electricity when following a regular routine.

We investigate whether the contrasting set of transportation policies in Korea---reductions in fuel taxes and increases in diesel automobile prices---has decreased emissions. Using a random-coefficient discrete choice model and hypothetical policy sets, we estimate the automobile demand of consumers, the market share of cars by fuel type, and total emissions, assuming that consumer preferences for driving costs change over time. Then, we separately analyze the effect of each policy set on automobile sales and emissions, particularly carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and particulate matter. Our analyses reveal that Korean consumers have become more sensitive toward fuel costs over time and that the emission consequences of Korean policies depend on consumer preferences.

Given the large accumulation of Greenhouse Gas emissions released by household, individual behaviors play a vital role in decarbonization measurement. Among different residents’ behaviors, using private car is an essential source of household carbon emission. Therefore, deepening the understanding about its variation and determinants is of great importance for decarbonizing individual behaviors. Taking Japan as example, this study firstly evaluates the emissions generated by household private car from 1990 to 2016. Then, by using econometric model, cluster and spatial autocorrelation analysis, both spatiotemporal trend and emissions determinants are given out. Results indicate that although the private car emissions across the whole extent of Japan is declining, depopulation still contributes to increasing emissions in some prefectures. Last, given the future depopulation trend, target-specific decarbonization policy is suggested to take demographic features as the first consideration.

Improving energy efficiency in the residential sector is a pressing issue in Japan. This study examines the economic and environmental impacts of introducing the following distributed energy resources: photovoltaics (PV), a fuel cell, and a battery. We estimate electricity and hot water demand profiles of a household by using simulated living activities. Electric power from a residential PV system is also calculated from the observed solar radiation. By using mixed integer programming, we perform a cost minimization operating simulation of a residential PV, fuel cell, and battery. The result suggests that we can create a net-zero energy house by installing both a PV system and a fuel cell into one house. On the other hand, using a battery with a fuel cell increases the household energy cost, and has few effects on CO2 emission reduction.

Residential smart metering and energy feedback have attracted worldwide attention toward reducing energy consumption and building a sustainable society. Many theoretical studies have suggested the importance of personalized information; however, few feedback demonstrations have focused on household lifestyle. This paper presents a pilot program of energy feedback reports based on analytical methods to show the relationship between electricity consumption and household lifestyle in Japan. One type of report was for households with a night-oriented lifestyle, which were classified by means of frequency analysis; it was evident that such households should shift to a healthy, environmentally friendly, morning-oriented lifestyle. Another type of report was based on cluster analysis: it pinpointed the dates and times when the household consumed much more electricity than with its regular routine. Through panel data regression analysis, it was found that the reports contributed to reducing daily household electricity consumption—as long as a boomerang effect could be avoided. It was also found that the feedback effect was enhanced by activation of consciousness, norms, and motives. It was observed that activation required a good understanding of the characteristics of electricity consumption and lifestyles of each household.

While the fuel economy of Japanese automobiles has improved by 40% in the past decade, gasoline consumption in the transportation sector from 2007 to 2016 only decreased by 4%. We seek to explain this discrepancy by investigating Japanese fuel economy standards and the financial incentives given to consumers of fuel-efficient cars. To do so, this study explores whether Japanese policies caused such a rebound effect, by employing the difference-in-difference framework. We find that these policies contribute to energy rebound effect, by enabling higher fuel consumption at lower costs and thus causing higher energy usages. We provide evidence that policies can increase not only fuel usage but also fuel costs. The main driving force behind the rebound effect is the increase in the sales of hybrid vehicles, induced by financial incentives.

Summary Thousands of factories in Japan responded to a survey on power outage costs for industrial customers. From across the country, 5139 facilities designated as energy management factories answered questions about their power consumption and the loss of production value due to a hypothetical hour-long power outage on a summer weekday. Using their responses, we estimated the median unit cost of a power outage across all sectors to be 672 yen/kWh. The service sector of amusement and hobbies and the manufacturing sector that makes electronic information and communication equipment have relatively high unit costs for power outages. The direct cost of damage from a specified power outage across all sectors totaled 77 billion yen. Using input–output analysis, we estimated the indirect damage costs caused by the repercussions of halting production. Indirect damages across all sectors totaled 91 billion yen. The wholesale and retail trade sector had the largest direct damage costs, while the transportation equipment manufacturing sector has the largest indirect damage costs. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 185(4): 25–32, 2013; Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI 10.1002/eej.22306