Text: “Climate change: Is ‘blue hydrogen’ Japan’s answer to coal?” BBC.com
Extract: “Shouldn’t Japan be cutting its coal consumption, not increasing it, at a time of great concern about coal’s impact on the climate?
So why the coal? The answer is the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.
In 2010 about one third of Japan’s electricity came from nuclear power, and there were plans to build a lot more. But then the 2011 disaster hit, and all Japan’s nuclear power plants were shut down. Ten years later most remain closed – and there is a lot of resistance to restarting them.” https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-59525480
The choice to go with hydrogen in Japan isn’t purely based on science – there is a element of culture behind it.