JAPAN’S NORTHERN-MOST island, Hokkaido, is the eastern-most refuge of the white-tailed eagle. The island’s mostly underdeveloped coastline, rugged and filled with sharp, green cliffs, brown bears, wolves, and a constant, strong, cold northern wind, has ample potential nesting spots for this migratory raptor, and healthy fisheries provide needed nourishment. The small villages along the island’s northern and western shores are mainly fishing communities, and the people here, like the eagle, depend on the sea.

Unlike humans, though, these eagles are a threatened species in Japan, deserving special protections. Though found across a wide range, from Hokkaido in the east to as far west as Greenland, their populations fell drastically in the first half of the 1900s due to habitat loss from deforestation, coastal development, the expansion of industry, and the use of chemical pesticides that impacted eggs and fledglings. Habitat protection measures and the ban of DDT and other pesticides the have led to overall population recovery in the past 50 years. But though the species is currently listed as of “Least Concern” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species, the distribution of nesting pairs is quite uneven.

In Hokkaido, the only island in Japan where this species nests, only 150 white-tailed eagles have been recorded recently. And now, both the humans and eagles are facing a new threat here: offshore wind.

Hokkaido represents some of Japan’s more bountiful offshore wind resources, and the Japanese government is planning for 15 projects on five offshore locations around the island that are alongside habitats critical to the while-tailed eagle and other wildlife.

Tatsuya Ura, chief researcher with the nonprofit Wild Bird Society of Japan, is concerned that wildlife, including the white-tailed eagles of Hokkaido, may suffer if development is rushed. “I do not think developers have properly considered the potential impacts on birds, wildlife, and marine life when proceeding with wind power projects,” Ura said through a translator. “Developers think that they don’t need to actually take into consideration the opinions of residents, even if they are willing to listen to them.”

In western Japan, local conservation groups and citizens filed a complaint to halt construction of a showcase project, the Hibikinada Offshore Wind Power Project, off the coast of Kitakyushu city. The 225 megawatt project, planned since 2017, envisions 25 turbines, which would more than double the country’s offshore wind capacity. Opponents fear that its location near Shirashima island, a bird nesting site, could harm wildlife, including two other bird species, streaked shearwaters and ospreys.

“We call for either a scrapping of the plan or the implementation of effective bird collision prevention,” the lead authors of the complaint wrote in a blog post, noting that they’re not anti-wind, but want “wind power to be bird-friendly.”

It’s not only wildlife enthusiasts who have reservations. Fishers across the country, too, are concerned that turbines could harm marine biodiversity and, in turn, their catches, by limiting access to fisheries.

In Akita in northern Japan, where turbines are already going up, fishers are concerned that plans to expand offshore wind could impact the breeding ground for the hatahata (light brown sandfish), the prefectural fish and a regional specialty.

“There may be an impact on the fish habitat as the wind farm grows bigger,” said Hiroshi Kagaya, a local fisherman and head of the local cooperative, to Nikkei. He is concerned for the livelihoods of fishers, and said the cooperative is watching closely to see if construction is impacting breeding areas.

OFFSHORE WIND IS seen as crucial in reducing Japan’s reliance on coal, natural gas, and nuclear power generation. The government has set a goal of having at least 10 gigawatts of offshore wind under construction between now and 2030, and 45 gigawatts by 2040, which would give the country the world’s third largest wind-power fleet.

Billions of dollars in investment from the government and Japanese, European, and US companies is flowing into these initiatives, which include numerous planned projects in remote regions like Hokkaido. For the most part, climate and energy groups welcome this, seeing offshore wind as an alternative to coal-fired or nuclear plants.

Coal and gas account for the majority of Japan’s electricity generation, about 60 percent, far more than the 22 percent currently coming from solar, wind, and hydropower. Nuclear power was a major energy source for Japan until March 2011, when a tsunami damaged the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, leading to a meltdown, explosions, and the release of radioactive materials. It was the world’s worst nuclear disaster since the 1986 Chernobyl explosion. As a result, Japan shut down all 54 of its nuclear reactors across the country, which led to widespread power shortages. Today, only 13 nuclear reactors have restarted, all in regions with low earthquake and tsunami risk. Only a few more are expected to resume operations in coming years.

Coal and gas consumption has grown as a result, alongside solar power and onshore wind. But with power demand expected to increase, especially amid demand from data centers and new factories, some climate and environmental groups are worried the country will restart nuclear plants or expand coal and gas plants. Many of these groups have begun pushing for a rapid buildout of offshore wind, even beyond the government’s target of one gigawatt per year.

“To meet net zero targets, we need to expand renewables by 80 percent by 2035,” Mika Ohbayashi, director of the Tokyo-based Renewable Energy Institute, said. “So we need 35 gigawatts of onshore wind, 25 gigawatts of offshore bottom fixed, and 20 gigawatts of offshore floating, at least 5 gigawatts per year.”

ADDING FIVE GIGAWATTS of offshore wind will necessitate many turbines in white-tailed eagle habitat and other traditional fishing areas. According to an analysis from the Mitsubishi Research Institute, most of Japan’s wind potential is on the country’s western and northern coasts, which are less populated and home to more marine and bird life.

One approach is to work with conversation groups and fishing communities to mitigate risks and plan offshore wind away from critical habitats. That won’t be easy. Fish has always been a major part of the Japanese diet and culture, and unlike other countries with large offshore wind installations, such as Norway and the United Kingdom, Japanese fisheries rely on a collective approach to fisheries management. This approach dates back centuries, with rights and regulations often set at the village or town level. And that creates a potential barrier to offshore wind development.

In general, fishing rights are given to local fishing cooperatives that have non-transferable rights to a certain sea area (though these rights vary from place to place). Management details, like the allocation of space, property, or gear, are determined within each cooperative, which is also responsible for designating eligible fishers and tailoring catch restrictions based on local conditions. Their size, influence, and how they operate can vary greatly.

“The local fisheries systems or cooperatives are so site specific, and this makes the introduction of offshore wind farms very difficult,” said Satoshi Tajima, a doctoral student studying coastal hydrology at the University of Tokyo who has done field research on Japanese fishers.

These cooperatives can stall a project, though they may not always be able to stop them. Still, developers need consent from local stakeholders to establish promotion zones for offshore wind. But because of their historical rights, fishers have a strong legal basis to refuse or challenge development.

“In western countries like Norway or the Denmark, they have top-down marine spatial planning, where the central government can decide where to develop the offshore [projects] and manage fisheries, or decide how to pay compensation to the fisheries who were impacted,” said Kensuke Yamaguchi, an assistant professor at the University of Tokyo, who has conducted research on fisheries in Japan.

In Japan, companies looking to develop offshore wind can’t rely on the central government, or even regional prefectural governments, which often lack the capacity to mediate between offshore wind developers and fishery rights holders.

Yoshimasa Sawa, an attorney and member of the Renewable Energy Association for Sustainable Power Supply (REASP), a pro-renewables business group, recalls similar resistance in 2016 around a planned offshore wind project in Yamaguchi Prefecture, near Fukuoka, in southern Japan. There, opposition from the Yamaguchi Prefectural Fisheries Cooperative Association stalled the project, as fishers argued that the project infringed on their fishing rights and would harm their livelihoods. The case took five years to litigate, delaying the project, before the case was ultimately dismissed by Japan’s Supreme Court in 2021. Construction has since resumed, but the plant is not expected to open until 2029, nine years behind schedule

“I agree, renewable energy shouldn’t destroy the environment,” Sawa said, “but it is also important to realize that decarbonization is important.”

LAST YEAR, JAPAN hit an important decarbonization milestone, establishing 5 gigawatts of wind generation capacity. Most of it, though, has been done through onshore wind, and the space for more such projects might already be tapped out, due to limited land availability in the densely populated, mountainous country where wind does best. To expand renewables, offshore wind will be the main target going forward.

The Japanese government is pushing forward on its goal, with the support of industry and climate groups. Already, the government is awarding offshore auctions to large corporations. While they still need local approval, they hope that turbines may soon go up alongside traditional fishing areas in rural areas of Hokkaido, Aomori, Iwate and, Niigata, and Akita prefectures. But in a quest for speed, there’s a risk that local opposition will grow as fishers, bird lovers, and environmentalists feel silenced.

Already, these plans are facing opposition. The Hokkaido, Kitakyushi, and Yamaguchi projects are just a few of the many that have been delayed by fishers and local communities. In central Japan, the Enshunada offshore wind project in Shizouka, which is in pre-construction, is also facing pushback from local conservation groups due to potential impacts on birds and marine wildlife, including habitat for the black bear hawk and numerous migratory bird species. In this case, they are requesting wind turbines be moved away from nesting areas.

Ura of Wild Bird Society of Japan is hopeful that floating offshore wind, which would allow turbines to be placed in areas where there isn’t an accessible sea floor, could limit the impacts on coastal birds and other wildlife. “In order to avoid affecting bird habitats and coastal fisheries, it would probably be desirable to build offshore wind turbines at a distance of more than 15 kilometers offshore,” he said.

But fisheries expert Yamagughi says going further from the coast could create more challenges. “Further offshore, the fishery rights issue becomes more complicated, due to ambiguity in those areas, and this could make consensus building with the stakeholders much more difficult,” he said.

There are some potential solutions. Yamaguchi and Tajima think creating a more centralized system for environmental impact assessments, currently conducted by companies and only made public for a few months, would be a good start. “One measure that the national government can take is to set a standard for fishery compensation around an offshore wind farm, based on scientific knowledge,” Tajiima said.

Meanwhile, REASP, the business group, is calling on the central government to create a digital database of fishery operations and rights across Japan, data that is currently held by various ministries and regional governments, sometimes only in paper format. This would allow developers to better identify sites that don’t overlap or conflict with fishers. “Business operators don’t have knowledge about fishers, or how fisheries differ from area to area,” Sawa said.

Local conditions can make a big difference. Tajima notes that in Akita prefecture, a project was developed successfully because active engagement meant fishers were more open to offshore wind.

“For the fishermen in Akita, there were not many people against offshore wind, because they can get compensation from developers, and make more money,” Tajima said.

The hope is that better data can policies, alongside adequate compensation, can help developers identify locations where conflicts with fishers and biodiversity are less likely. For Japan to rapidly expand wind power, factoring in impacts on species like white-tailed eagles or the numerous small-scale fishers across the archipelago are essential, otherwise, delays, conflicts, and continued use of coal, natural gas are likely to continue.