Comparative Analysis on Citizen’s Subjective Responses Related to Their Willingness to Pay for Renewable Energy in Japan Using Latent Variables

This paper focuses on understanding the difference between East and West Japan with respect to citizens’ subjective views on renewable energy. A comparative analysis was performed for cities in the east and west because renewable energy is a natural resource unique to each location and suitable for a distributed energy network operated under the autonomy of the local community. This paper indicates that the social acceptance of renewable energy and willingness to pay in East Japan is affected by the citizens’ strong concerns about the global environment and willingness to participate in policy-making, while the support of the deregulation of the retail electricity market and development of a distributed power system is more relevant in West Japan.