In Tokyo, new houses built after 2025 will have to have solar panels

Tokyo - In Tokyo, all new houses built by large construction companies after April 2025 will have to be equipped with solar panels. This is intended to reduce carbon emissions in households. According to Reuters, this follows a new regulation approved by the city council of the Japanese capital on Thursday.

The regulation, the first of its kind in Japan, requires about fifty of the largest construction companies to equip homes up to 2000 square meters with renewable energy sources, primarily solar panels. Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said last week that only four percent of buildings in the city that could accommodate solar panels currently have them. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by half by 2030 compared to 2000 levels.

Japan is the fifth-largest producer of carbon emissions in the world. The country has committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. However, it faces difficulties as it has heavily relied on thermal energy burning coal since the Fukushima nuclear disaster in March 2011.

"In addition to the global climate crisis, we are facing an energy crisis with the never-ending Russia-Ukraine war," said Risako Narikij, a member of Koike's regional party. "There is no time to waste," she added.