A Shanghai company with a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) background is building mega-solar power plants near Japan’s most important U.S. military base in Iwakuni. The city’s council member raised the alarm that the CCP was posing a threat to national security.
Takashi Ishimoto, a member of Iwakuni city council, said that the major solar power plants that the Chinese firm is involved in are located in Yamaguchi Prefecture—one in Miwa-cho, Iwakuni city (or Iwakuni-shi) in the north, and the other in Yanai city (or Yanai-shi) in the south—sandwiching the Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni.
Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni is the most paramount U.S. military facility in the Far East, shared by the U.S. Marine Corps and the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force.
CCP capital’s involvement in the construction of mega solar power plants in itself has “created regional and national security problems,” Mr. Ishimoto told The Epoch Times on Sept. 10.
Shanghai Electric Power is an affiliate of the state-owned China Power Investment Corporation that was founded by the State Council’s assets supervisor body.
CCP-Funded Power Plants in Japan
In September 2021, the Japan Branch of Shanghai Electric Power acquired the whole equity of the Yamaguchi Iwakuni photovoltaic project through RS Asset Management, a Japan-based fund management company.According to Shanghai Electric Power’s announcement in 2021, the relevant construction started in November 2019 and was scheduled to be connected to the grid in June 2023.
Iwakuni residents have long opposed the construction of mega solar power plants, fearing it would cause landslides, soil contamination, and depletion of water wells and damage the environment.
Mr. Ishimoto, who proceeded with the matter on behalf of the local residents, had repeatedly sought to reach out to Shanghai Electric Power’s Japan office. Still, the chief refused to discuss the power plant construction project.
Shanghai Electric Power has also been linked to another mega-solar power station located in Yanai City, which Yamaguchi Yanai Mega Solar LLC owns, as revealed by Mr. Ishimoto.
As for how Chinese capital plots outside China, according to Hideki Hirano, a professor at Himeji University, “typically, the Chinese buyer won’t show up but instead utilizes a Japanese limited liability company (LLC) as its ‘white glove’” because the nature of LLC allows investors the right to operate the company.
Mr. Ishimoto said, in his investigation, Shanghai Electric Power is likely constructing solar power plants throughout Japan, including Hokkaido and Tokushima. Almost all of these are surrounded by Japanese military installations, nuclear plants, telecommunication transmission towers, and transit stations.
In addition, Yamaguchi Prefecture has another solar power plant in Hofu city (Hofu-shi); the plant’s leadership is all Chinese, according to the Japanese officer.
Hofu solar power plant is only one kilometer from a Japan Self-Defense Forces airbase. The airbase is home to Japan’s first military unit dedicated to outer space safety.
Chinese-Acquired Island Land Near Military Base
In addition to power generation facilities, Mr. Ishimoto said, Chinese buyers appear to be interested in acquiring land near military bases.At the opposite of the Yanai solar power station, there is a small island in Iwakuni called Kasashima, with only a circumference of about 4 kilometers (about 2.5 miles). In 2017, a Chinese buyer bought a portion of Kasashima Island in 2017 and is building villas or condominiums on the island, Mr. Ishimoto cited his sources.
It’s worthwhile noting that the area in front of the construction site is a significant sea route known as “Throat Road,” which the Japanese Self-Defense Forces and other warships pass through.
The isolated island, along with the above-mentioned two giant solar power plants, formed a siege around the Iwakuni U.S. Air Force Base from the north and south.
Suspected Exposed Aircraft Flight Zone
Mr. Ishimoto said one acquaintance in the U.S. Army told him that those solar power plants are directly below the flight path of fighter jets in Iwakuni; from their locations, one can easily track and obstruct the flight patterns of the U.S. Air Force and its aircraft, for example, U.S. fighter jets may take off from the Iwakuni’s base and fly toward Okinawa or move to the north.
The Iwakuni base is regularly used for military training, with some 120 to 130 aircraft at the ready, and sometimes with aircraft from other areas, Mr. Ishimoto said.
Iwakuni is the most extensive U.S. military air base in the Far East and the cornerstone of the U.S. military presence in Japan. The presence of the carrier force, which plays a vital role in the war effort, means that Iwakuni has become a base that plays a central role in the war effort.
US, Japan Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni
The U.S. Navy has two overseas bases in Japan, one in Okinawa and one in Iwakuni (pdf), home to a permanent population of about 13,000, according to Mr. Ishimoto.Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni sits in the delta of Iwakuni city in the western part of Honshu Island, facing the Seto Inland Sea and surrounded by Shikoku Island to the southeast and Kyushu Island to the west.
The 31st Air Force of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force is also stationed at Iwakuni Base.
Japan is the only country where the U.S. military deploys aircraft carriers overseas and the only country where the U.S. Marine Corps has air bases overseas.
