Minowa Town, Nagano Prefecture has become the first municipality in Japan to establish promotional areas that will become the target areas for the local decarbonization promotion project*. Based on the criteria set by Nagano Prefecture in May 2022, the town has decided to promote the introduction of PV power generation by designating the roofs of town-owned public facilities, town-owned land, and industrial parks as promotional areas. In addition, unused land, parking lots, and reservoirs will also be considered to be designated as promotional areas in the future.

These promotional areas are intended as the starting point, and the town plans to expand the promotional areas in the future in cooperation with other areas and business operators in the town. The town has lined up 92 specific candidate facilities and locations, including administrative facilities, schools and other educational facilities, as well as water and sewage facilities, as possible locations for the promotional areas.

According to the Ministry of the Environment (MoE), about 20 other municipalities are considering to establish promotional areas. Among them, Odawara City, Kanagawa Prefecture, plans to announce in around September 2022 its policy to promote the introduction of PV power generation in the urbanization areas as promotional areas, excluding the areas in danger of steep slope failure and the erosion control areas

*The local decarbonization promotion project was established under the revised Law Concerning the Promotion of the Measures to Cope with Global Warming, which came into effect in April 2022, and municipalities are obliged to make efforts to designate promotional areas.