May 27th 2002
Ministers in Japan Urge government to move target development date for Fuel Cells
Source:Kyodo News
Monday, May 27, 2002 at 18:30 JST
TOKYO — Senior vice ministers from the industry, transport and environment ministries urged the government in a report Monday to move up its target year for the development and spread of fuel cells to around 2005 from 2020.
"The consequences of
development competition by around 2005 could influence the dominance of
future market competition," said the politicians appointed to the government
posts who formed a project team to promote fuel cells.
The report aims at
advancing the government's targets of introducing 5 million fuel cell cars
and fuel cell stations of a capacity totaling 10 million kilowatts by 2020,
the vice ministers said.
For example, they urged the government to set up safety standards so to be able to accredit fuel cell cars by around 2005 and to carry out a comprehensive review of rules related to fuel cells, also by around 2005.
They also proposed organizing future fuel cell car races to further promote technological innovations.
Set up in February,
the team consists of Keiji Furuya and Yoshihisa Oshima, both senior vice
ministers of economy, trade and industry, Shizuo Sato and Shigeaki Tsukihara
of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and Eiichi Yamashita,
senior vice environment minister.
