Japanese developer Nomura Real Estate Holdings is intent on riding the wave of the future--even the "save the environment" wave. Nikkei Asian Review reported that the developer is planning to make its hotels committed to a green planet by promoting renewable energy in its chain of hotels, hoping to attract a whole new line of tourists who are into renewable energy and environmental-friendly methods.

The move is to appease tourists who are looking for hotels that are environment-friendly. Starting in September, the Nohga Hotel chain of Nomura will get 100% of the electricity produced by NF Power Service Co. The said power producer, meanwhile, was an "energy joint venture" set up by Nomura Real Estate and a Tokyo Electric Power Co. Holdings subsidiary back in 2015.

The Nohga Hotel chain currently operates in just one location--in Tokyo's Ueno, which has 130 rooms. It will soon get an additional property in the Akihabara area of the capital. The new property will reportedly have around 120 rooms in summer 2020. Soon to follow is a Kyoto site which will also have 200 rooms, coming in the spring of 2022.

Nomura's initiative is only one of many in Japan, which has traditionally been dependent on coal-fired power to supply their buildings and homes. According to Climate Change, the country appears intent on innovation as it seems adamant on ending its contribution towards pollution and climate change. The authorities seem serious about doing so.

Japan was just hours ahead of the UK, which announced its intention to get legislation on cutting emissions to zero by 2050. Japan proposes to "commercialize" carbon capture and utilization (CCU) technology by 2023 and carbon capture and storage (CCS), which is used in coal-fired power plants, by 2030.

Taking these steps a bit further, the country also committed to slashing production costs of hydrogen to less than a tenth by 2050. The plan had been criticized, however, by those who saw them being made without a viable solution in place. Coal power had accounted for 33% of the country's power output in 2015, according to data sourced from the World Bank.

With Japanese banks and development agencies financing coal-fired plants from Indonesia to Vietnam, it would be hard to suggest a radical change in emission reduction. Still, all it takes is one institution to embrace such a change. Nomura Real Estate seems adamant on keeping its promise and may start a real change in power production in Japan.