Son – the founder of the Japan Renewable Energy Foundation (JREF) – first raised the idea of connecting Japan, Russia, South Korea, China and Mongolia in a single, cross-border electricity network in response to the earthquake and tsunami that triggered the March 2011 accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
Stung by widespread public opposition to the use of nuclear energy, the Japanese authorities closed the last of the country’s nuclear power plants last September.
