Asset-based community development in the energy sector: energy and regional policy lessons from community power in Japan

ABSTRACT

While promoting the expansion of alternative energy resources from the bottom-up, community ownership of assets is an important means to strengthen community resilience through local stakeholder engagement. This article argues that asset-based community development in the energy sector (ABCD-E) is a useful concept to frame our understanding of current Japanese community power initiatives which aim to reduce local dependencies on core executive decision-making and resource distribution, hence to reconfigure state–society and intergovernmental relations. Based on a case study of renewable energy projects in the City of Iida, located in Nagano Prefecture, empirical evidence for this multi-sectoral, place-based policy approach from Japan is provided. However, the tradition of central state authoritarianism, the interdependence and overlapping jurisdictional boundaries in the energy and regional policy areas, and vested interests of powerful interest groups pose strong barriers to energy-related ABCD functionality in the context of multi-level governance constraints.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.