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438 Sustainable Cities and Communities Design Handbook

Office’s Specialist Deliberation Committee on Important Issues, whose first
meeting took place on October 11, 2013. 11 This committee is one of the main
advisory organs for the Council for Science, Technology and Innovation,
chaired by the prime minister. And from November 18, 2013, Kashiwagi also
became chair of the Energy Strategy Conference, one of the Specialist
Deliberation Committee’s working groups. 12 The Energy Strategy Conference
groups key scholars and business interests involved in smart energy and
climate change. It evaluates the role of energy within Japan’s overall “Society
5.0” innovation strategy, paying increasingly close attention to smart networks
and resilience. Akin to Germany’s Industry 4.0 initiative, Japan’s Society 5.0
project seeks to harness the technologies of the fourth industrial revolution.
However, incentivized by disasters, demographics, and other challenges, Ja-
pan’s effort transcends Germany’s smart factories and aims to deploy smart
systems throughout the entire society (Sayer, 2017; Kashiwagi, 2017).
In addition to his prominence in academe and policy making, Kashiwagi is
also directly involved in business circles that embody the ongoing revolution
in smart and distributed energy. Particularly noteworthy is his chairmanship of
the Advanced Cogeneration and Energy Utilization Center (ACEJ). The ACEJ
is dedicated to promoting cogeneration systems (DHC as well as fuel cells)
and the use of renewable energy. In September 2011, it revised its name from
“Japan Cogeneration Center” to reflect this larger purpose. After April 2014,
the ACEJ’s membership also expanded, to encompass not just energy firms but
also electronics, construction, design, and other firms, reflecting the co-
generation’s increasing sophistication and diffusion in Japan (ACEJ, 2016).

JAPAN’S NATIONAL SPATIAL STRATEGY
Kashiwagi and his circle also helped shift Japan’s priorities on energy policy
and infrastructure via Japan’s new National Spatial Strategy (NSS), which was
adopted in August 2015. Like the NRP, the NSS was produced by an inclusive
process. Indeed, the OECD described the NSS as “an intensive exercise in
inter-ministerial co-ordination and consultations extending beyond the gov-
ernment itself under the aegis of the National Land Council, which brings
together parliamentarians, academic experts, representatives of the private
sector, elected officials from the cities and regions, and others.” Like the NRP,
the NSS was both distinctive from Japan’s previous top-down planning stra-
tegies and had regional versions. This broad range of consultation gave the

11. The membership, minutes, and materials studied by the Specialist Deliberation Committee on
Important Issues are available (in Japanese) at the following URL: http://www8.cao.go.jp/cstp/
tyousakai/juyoukadai/index.html.
12. The membership, minutes, and materials studied by the Energy Strategy Conference are
available (in Japanese) at the following URL: http://www8.cao.go.jp/cstp/tyousakai/
juyoukadai/wg.html.