CCP-Backed Company Constructs Mega-Solar Power Plant Near US, Japan Military Bases; Japanese Councillor Raises Security Concerns

A military plane parks at the barbed-wired U.S. Marine Corps Air Station at Iwakuni city in Yamaguchi prefecture near Hiroshima Feb. 10, 2006. Shingo Ito /AFP via Getty Images

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.

Mr. Ishimoto has called for political attention in an April 4 post on X, formerly known as Twitter, over a “stopping” to the questionable behavior of Shanghai Electric Power building power stations within the territory of Yamaguchi Prefecture, home to “eight Self-Defense Force bases and other Japanese air, land, and sea bases, as well as a U.S. military base in Iwakuni,” he wrote.

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.

Shanghai Electric Power’s official webpage said that its overseas business stretched out to Malta, Japan, Montenegro, Turkey, and other “Belt and Road” routes, with total overseas assets exceeding 12.5 billion yuan ($1.71 billion). “Belt and Road” is the CCP’s overseas infrastructure initiative expanding its influence globally.

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.

The project plans to install 300,000 solar panels around 117 hectares (289 acres) of land, with the power output amounting to 75 megawatts, equivalent to the energy consumption of about 22,500 households.

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.

Ishimoto Takashi, Iwakuni City Council member. Courtesy of Mr. Ishimoto

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.

Mr. Ishimoto seriously questioned why the Chinese were targeting Japanese power plants and stations. He believes the Chinese are not just for making money.

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.

Map provided by Takashi Ishimoto. Edited by The Epoch Times

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.

“Can you say it’s just a coincidence? I think it’s very strategic,” Mr. Ishimoto said, indicating that all the moves by the Chinese could facilitate the CCP’s access to U.S. and Japanese military intelligence and activities.

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.

U.S. marine aircraft personnel walk past F-18 hornets from the U.S. Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 122 after they landed at Clark Air Base, a former U.S. base, from Iwakuni, Japan, to join a two-week joint military training exercise with Filipino counterparts dubbed Talon Vision 2007, on Oct. 12, 2006. Jay Directo /AFP via Getty Images

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.

Given one of this U.S.-Japanese military base’s missions is to suppress the CCP, in Mr. Ishimoto’s view, it could be of strategic significance for the CCP to control the power generation facilities and land around the base through Chinese buyers, for instance, for its espionage measures, intelligence-gathering activities, and even interference in the military activities of the United States and Japan.

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.