Japan´s Top Runners
Japan´s Top Runners
Table: Japan´s Top Runner program´s
efficiency targets for fluorescent lamps (by 2005)
The Japanese government recently launched a major new policy initiative
designed to make Japanese appliances, including lighting, the most energy
efficient in the world. Spurred by its climate change abatement commitments
agreed to under the Kyoto Protocol, the Japanese Ministry of Trade and
Industry (MITI) has drawn up an action plan to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
The recently announced policy initiative consists of several components,
of which a set of quasi-compulsory minimum energy efficiency targets for
a wide range of technologies is one of the major parts. And lighting is
a key focus area.
Japan first introduced minimum energy efficiency targets for a number
of technologies as early as 1979 in response to the energy shocks of the
1970s. The Energy Conservation Law in 1979 established standards for industrial
plant energy management, heat insulation of homes, and automobile fuel
consumption. According to the law, standards and labelling are voluntary
for manufacturers and distributors. However, if either fail to follow
or fulfil MITI’s recommendations for efficiency improvement for certain
equipment, MITI will make the failure public. MITI may also order non-compliant
manufacturers to receive consultation from a council established by a
government ordinance in order to follow recommendations. These deterrents
are tools designed to publicly humiliate non-compliant parties; in practice
they make the efficiency targets regulations effectively mandatory,
since Japanese manufacturers weigh their success heavily on company image,
prestige, and pride.
Since the early 1990s concerns about global warming have drawn Japanese
policy makers’ attention back toward energy efficiency and new standards
for fluorescent lamps, televisions, computers, magnetic disk drives, and
copiers were added in 1994, but the 1998 Kyoto Protocol has required that
more stringent and comprehensive measures be developed. MITI’s recently
published CO2 abatement strategy has identified tougher efficiency standards
as one of the key policy measures. MITI’s new energy efficiency legislation
for appliances and lighting is commonly known as the ‘Top Runner’
program because the government has set minimum energy efficiency targets
which require the sales-weighted average of any brand of appliances sold
on the Japanese market to meet efficiency thresholds set at or above the
level of the most efficient products on the market at the time the legislation
was announced. As previously, the targets are quasi-mandatory but nevertheless
regarded to be effective, as explained above. The Top Runner program has
introduced new efficiency targets to be achieved by 2005 for all fluorescent
lamps that are intended for use for commercial and public lighting or
in residential lighting. Lighting energy use is expected to fall by 13%.
The target values are given in the table at page 10.
Chiharu Murakoshi
Hidetoshi Nakagami
Chiharu Murakoshi, president hal@jyuri.co.jp
and
Hidetoshi Nakagami, director nakagami@jyuri.co.jp
Jyukankyo Research Institute in Tokyo, Japan.
Fax: +81 3 54 85 2123