Impacts of ubiquitous technology advances on energy consumption in Japan

We created a mathematical model of the Japanese economy using a macro‐economic modeling framework called a computable general equilibrium model. We used the model to estimate the impacts of the ubiquitous network technology advances on CO₂ emissions in Japan. Four scenarios of the ubiquitous network society in Japan in 2010 were selected. The four scenarios correspond to four different levels of ubiquitous society advancement. In each scenario, we estimated electricity consumption by electronics products, the effects of ubiquitous network application systems on improving energy efficiency, and the industrial structural changes induced by the expansion of the ubiquitous network application services market. Our results indicate that advanced ubiquitous technologies would potentially reduce the CO₂ emissions of the Japanese economy by 2.8%. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 161(3): 22–30, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20419