Japan Trying to Regain Its Past Glory in Battery Industry

The Federation of Korean Industries said in its report on Jan. 24 that Japan is increasing investment in its EV battery industry and South Korea needs to improve its strategies not to lag behind.

According to the federation, the Japanese government intends to boost the country's share of the global battery market to 20 percent by 2030. Japan commercialized the world’s first lithium-ion battery in the 1990s, and its share in the global battery market topped 50 percent until 2015. Then, from 2016 to 2020, Japan’s share in the global lithium-ion battery market dropped from 51.7 percent to 21.1 percent and that in the global energy storage system market plummeted from 27.4 percent to 5.4 percent with South Korea and China outperforming it.

The Japanese government released a storage battery industry strategy in 2022. According to it, Japan’s domestic battery and battery material manufacturing capacity will be increased to 150 GWh and its global capacity will be increased to 600 GWh a year by 2030. The government and the private sector will invest 5.6 trillion yen to this end. For reference, its current total capacity is 60 to 70 GWh.

The strategy also includes a 213.2 billion yen project for all-solid-state battery commercialization by 2030. Japan is leading all-solid-state battery development by, for example, owning 37 percent of relevant patents. Toyota unveiled the world’s first all-solid-state battery vehicle in September 2021 and is planning to invest more than 1.5 trillion yen until 2030 in this sector.