Empirical investigation of energy poverty in japan – a categorical comparison of households

The issue of energy (or fuel) poverty has gained increasing attention in developed nations in the past couple of decades. In Japan, energy poverty studies are relatively young and limited in comparison to other developed countries. The 2011 Great East Japan Eartuquake triggered major concerns over households’ affordability of energy. Energy policy changes in the aftermath of the earthquake, as well as alternative factors such as stagnating economy and rise in taxes, resulted in escalating energy costs. Hence, different types of households’ experiences of energy poverty were investigated in a few studies, from 2013 to 2020 [1-5]. The number of studies are far outnumbered by the ones conducted in other developed countries, such as the European nations; though they draw a preliminary understanding of the situation in Japan. [1] and [5] suggest that certain types of households in Japan, such as the elderly or single parents are categorically energy poor, or in higher risk of underlying in this category in comparison to other categories of households. We have conducted surveys in two different cities in Japan, namely Tokyo and Oita in order to further explore the issue of energy poverty. Furthermore, we focused on the comparison of ordinary households and college students, in order to investigate whether students experience a tougher challenge.