The participating companies will jointly match a ¥25bn investmentby the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) to fund the gridextensions.
Trading firms Marubeni and Mitsui & Co. will set up a specialpurpose company (SPC) with SB Energy, the clean-energy unit of telecoms giantSoftbank, to expand the grid near the town of Mashike, on the west coast of theisland of Hokkaido.
