By Miho Naganuma / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

Japan's economy ministry and a major Danish wind turbine manufacturer signed a memorandum on Monday to cooperate on expanding wind power generation in Japan.

Vestas Wind Systems A/S aims to build an assembly plant in Japan to manufacture nacelles, a core component containing a wind turbine's critical control systems. The plan is for the plant to be built by fiscal 2029, which ends March 2030.

Kitakyushu in southern Japan and Muroran in Hokkaido are among the potential locations for the factory. After operations begin, the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry aims to establish a framework to completely produce large wind turbines in Japan, from blades to towers, by fiscal 2039.

As a prerequisite for the agreement, a certain number of Vestas turbines must be ordered for use in Japan.

The ministry expects that the project will attract several tens of billions of yen in investment at minimum and is considering supporting the project through subsidies.

In its strategic energy plan approved by the Cabinet in February 2025, the government set a goal of increasing wind power's share in the country's total electricity generation from 1.1% in fiscal 2023 to around 4-8% by fiscal 2039. However, domestically manufacturing wind turbines has become an obstacle, as Japan lacks manufacturing bases for nacelles and blades.

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This article is from The Yomiuri Shimbun. Neither Dow Jones Newswires, MarketWatch, Barron's nor The Wall Street Journal were involved in the creation of this content.

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March 10, 2026 02:37 ET (06:37 GMT)

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