My chapter, co-authored by Professor Satoshi Kurokawa from Waseda University, was published by Routledge.

In our work titled "The Bamboo that Bends is Stronger than the Oak that Resists: Active Energy Consumers in Japan" we hilight that although prosumers and energy communities (enekomi) are already part of Japan's energy market, any further development of enekomi and prosumerism necessitates the formation of an appropriate regulatory framework.

Powered by renewable energy sources, with photovoltaics playing an important role, they constitute a growing wave that, however, is developing at different speeds and faces some obstacles. Many rely on a regulatory framework that could be more preferential and flexible. “The bamboo that bends is stronger than the oak that resists,” as the proverb goes. In this light, Japan, if it wishes to promote the concept of a sustainable regional community on a global scale as well as reach carbon neutrality by 2050, must adopt a more favourable approach to prosumerism.

M.M. Sokołowski, S. Kurokawa (2024), “The Bamboo That Bends Is Stronger Than the Oak That Resists: Active Energy Consumers in Japan”. In Routledge Handbook of Consumer Protection and Behaviour in Energy Markets, eds. T. Soliman Hunter, M. Kraśniewski, J. Malinauskaite, M. Czarnecka, Routledge, Abingdon-New York | Google Scholar