Explaining how expensive electricity is in Japan: Explained with the case of paper business

Especially after having turned nuclear power plants in Japan off since the last nuclear accident in Fukushina in March 2011, electricity in Japan is considerably expensive.  Even before then, it was expensive compared to the other countries because of its relatively heavier reliance on the thermal power plant fuelled with fossil fuels imported from abroad. 

It is difficult to explicitly display how expensive it is in Japan because there are so many variables to be compared with the significance of the electric power price influencing an economy there. So, one industrial case is introduced here to explain how significant Japanese electric price is as a significant variable cost incurred upon this industry.  This is paper manufacturing introduced here as an explicit example

Pulp is the base raw material of papers manufactured by a paper machine. Paper manufacturing needs cellulose fibres obtained most notably from woods. The more expensive finer alternative material can be cotton.

There are mainly two methods of producing pulp: chemically processed one and mechanically processed one.  The chemical pulping process uses chemicals and heat to convert woods into pulp meanwhile the mechanical pulping process grinds woods by mechanically defibrating wooden fibres into pulp.

The price of chemical components tends to influence the chemical pulp price whereas the usage volume of machinery consuming the high-volume electricity affects the mechanical pulp price. Supply of the chemical materials is often volatile and requires their characteristics of quality to match a particular level for pulping.

The mechanical pulping is not so prone to the conditioning as much as the chemical counterpart. Electricity is electricity whatever and whenever it is produced. The general specification of these pulping machines is not extensively dissimilar to each other in this world. 

In terms of the ordinary world situation, the former is more expensive than the latter, so the proportion of which pulp content to use determines the quality of papers as follows:

• 上質 (directly translated as "high quality") : "Fine" paper/pulp: Chemical pulp 100%
• 中質 : Medium quality": Mix of chemical pulp and mechanical pulp.

However, this is the way around in terms of Japanese paper & pulp business. The latter can be more expensive than the former despite their naming. This is because the latter requires to consume higher-volume electricity while their pulping processes. This factor indicates how expensive electricity generated in Japan even while taking the volatile chemical supply and price into consideration.

Having observed this paper business case, Japan is indeed urged to increase a far more efficient method of generating electricity overall. This current high electric bill price suppresses both business growth and individuals' utility by squeezing their household budget as an unavoidable cost for these activities. 

Nuclear power generation should be reactivated at least to repress the currently already intolerable cost inflation.  Perhaps, the research and development (R&D) inventing a new technology allowing Japan to fundamentally overcome from the high electricity generation cost is worthwhile to implement even its feasibility is questionable for the time being. 

The imaginable example is the nuclear fusion possibly enabling to supply the electricity satisfying the total demand of the entire Japan maybe even by replacing all the other existing electric power plants. It can be rather more productive to invest into efforts and time into increasing this feasibility to accomplish building this functional nuclear fusion power plant. 

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I consider that the nuclear power technology should be considered as a public good so I claim for the integration to a good government management or at least the civic-cooperative management looked after by several private individuals (The Classical Economics) rather than the current administration by one single private gigantic corporation detached from the fair market competition!

Well, this nuclear management industry has such a humongous economic of scale whose competition is nearly infeasible. So, I recommend either the full integration (the cohesive monopoly under a single public body such as government) or a cooperative management (classical economics example: democratically managed by several individuals living in this community)

Two legends both named Immanuel: Pluto opposition to Sun v.s. Pluto no-aspect

The Pluto-aspect characteristics of the astrological natal chart are often discussed inside our astrological circle. In particular, the natal aspect of Pluto forming the opposition to the natal light (Sun/Moon) and the counterpart of Pluto without any aspect (called no-aspect) have been mentioned in separate blog posts.

As this time, it can be a time to post an essay comparing these two Pluto aspects in one article. Coincidently, there are two historical legends called by the same name Immanuel to compare by means of these two natal chart-aspects.

• The former is Jesus Christ (called Immanuel while his childhood just after his birth) who was endowed with his natal Pluto forming the opposition to his natal Sun.
  • Please note that it refers to his controversial birthday 25th December of the first year of the AD regardless of its historical accuracy because it refers to his well-known personality as a protagonist character in a quasi-fictional story.
• The latter is Immanuel Kant, one of the most remarkable and influential modern philosophers in the world, was endowed with his natal Pluto forming no-aspect with his other natal signs.

Both are the legend historically famous enough to leave precious assets in this world so that they are useful examples of showing the contrast of these two Pluto aspects, the opposition to the natal Sun and the no-aspect.

Although both have equally remarkable qualities, their characteristics and their fates are notably different. This characteristic difference between these two legends is an interesting and explicit example showing the characteristic difference between the Pluto opposition and the Pluto no-aspect.

Immanuel Jesus Christ with his natal Pluto opposition became an eternal divine sovereign known by almost all individuals across the world and loved by his followers at his contemporary period onward. His life was dramatic with his unimaginable challenges and ended with his unavoidable fate.

It is suspected that every individual with a deep interest in academic subjects including such as history, law, philosophy, politics, and public sector economics must know Immanuel Kant and his academic works. Most of these theories having existed after his contribution contain his footprints. The progress of accumulating his fame was slow but was steady and became significantly notable at the end.

In terms of the fame, Christ was far superior to Kant. However, Kant’s merit and contribution to the terrestrial world were far more prevailing than Christ’s counterparts. Rather than Christ himself, his ardent followers made Christ famous through writing the New Testament and orally persuading people to remind Christ’s doings. By contrast, Kant put his own efforts for establishing himself to make him famous at the end.

Regardless of individuals’ interest of something particular, nobody may be unable to avoid listening to Christ’s name while living in the world of human civilisation. Christ was unconditionally loved and hated while he was alive. His painful fate haunted through his terrestrial life, but he was deeply blessed with the celestial supremacy’s protection.

Individuals’ knowledge about Kant might be really limited even though they are living in the current world under Kant’s heavy influence. While his youth, he was quite distant from an excessive emotional attachment with others because he enjoyed his organised, quiet, and simple life style whilst making his perseverant efforts on his story and innovation. His social status was not so remarkable while his youth although his social status suddenly became ultra-remarkable when his academic works were finally recognised by the authority and the mass in his relatively elder period.

To sum up, the contrast of these two legendary quality lifestyles well depicts the characteristic difference between the Pluto opposition and the Pluto no-aspect. Pluto represents not only authority but also the mass support and the effect of Pluto generally appears either extremely intensively or extremely incompletely. Christ had been not only haunted but also blessed by the extreme intensity of Pluto meanwhile Pluto’s influence over Kant shifted from null to extremely effectual.