Renewable Energy Project Certification in Japan: The FIT and FIP Route
Almost every renewable project that sells power in Japan first needs business-plan certification under the FIT/FIP Act, and it cannot earn a tariff or premium without it. A walk through the certification pathway, the grid-connection prerequisite, the Article 9(1) filing, the choice between FIT and FIP, and the three-month clock that governs every change, for developers and investors entering Japanese renewables.
In Japan, a renewable project’s economics start with a certificate, not a turbine. Almost every project that intends to sell power under a support scheme must first obtain business-plan certification (事業計画認定) under the FIT/FIP Act, and without it there is no tariff and no premium. It is a high-volume, predictable, and firmly bounded administrative process, and it sits at the center of how developers and investors actually enter Japanese renewables. This is a map of that pathway. For the agency that runs it and the wider energy-policy context, see our ANRE explainer; this piece is about getting a project certified.
Certification is the gate to the tariff
Japan’s support for renewable power flows through certification. Under Article 9(1) of the FIT/FIP Act, the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy (ANRE) certifies a project’s renewable energy generation business plan, and it is that certification, not the mere fact of generating, that entitles a project to a feed-in tariff or a feed-in premium. A project can technically sell electricity on the wholesale market without it, but it then walks away from the revenue support that underpins most project finance, so in practice the certificate is the thing every developer is chasing.
The scale tells the story: ANRE processes roughly 210,000 business-plan certifications a year, on a published three-month clock with no fee. This is a volume administrative process, not a case-by-case negotiation. The timeline is predictable, but for that same reason it is not negotiable on a per-project basis — you plan to the three months, you do not lobby them shorter.
FIT or FIP: which regime you certify into
Certification is into one of two regimes, and the difference is a difference in who carries market risk.
Under the Feed-in Tariff (FIT), the off-taker buys the output at a fixed price for the support term; the generator is insulated from wholesale price movements. Under the Feed-in Premium (FIP), introduced in 2022, the generator sells into the market and receives a premium on top, keeping exposure to price signals while still supporting revenue. Japan has been deliberately steering larger and newer projects from FIT toward FIP, and toward competitive auctions for large solar and for wind, reserving the simpler fixed tariff for smaller installations. For a developer, which regime a project lands in is set by its size and technology, and it changes the revenue model, the hedging, and the investor conversation, so it has to be understood before, not after, the certification is filed.
The certification pathway, step by step
The pathway is legible once the order is clear, and the leverage sits early.
Secure the grid connection first. Certification requires a secured grid connection, and in Japan that, not the paperwork, is usually the binding constraint. Grid capacity is allocated by the regional transmission companies, coordinated nationally by OCCTO, and in constrained regions the connection queue can run for years. A project cannot be certified around capacity that does not exist, so the connection agreement is the real long-lead item.
Assemble the business plan. The application defines the site, the equipment, the operator, and the compliance commitments — including the maintenance and decommissioning obligations that the regime now enforces after years of poorly-managed solar sites.
File under Article 9(1) and plan to the three-month clock. The certification runs on a published three-month standard processing period. It is predictable, but it is a quarter, and it comes after the grid work, not in parallel with launch.
Manage changes as first-class events. After certification, changes are not free. A change requiring re-certification runs under Article 10(1) and a change notification under Article 10(2), and both sit on the same three-month clock as the original. A project that needs a mid-development amendment should budget another quarter, not assume a variation is quicker. Ending the project has its own step, a termination notice under Article 11.
The published procedures
Japan publishes the legal basis, standard processing period, and annual volume of each administrative procedure. For the certification pathway and the grid-side steps that sit alongside it (FY2024):
| Procedure | Legal basis | Standard period | Volume/year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Renewable generation business-plan certification | FIT/FIP Act, Art. 9(1) | 3 months | ~210,000 |
| Change requiring re-certification | FIT/FIP Act, Art. 10(1) | 3 months | ~52,000 |
| Change notification | FIT/FIP Act, Art. 10(2) | 3 months | ~140,000 |
| Termination notice | FIT/FIP Act, Art. 11 | 3 months | ~2,000 |
| Construction-plan notification (generating facility) | Electricity Business Act, Art. 48(1) | 1 month | ~300 |
| Pre-use self-assessment report | Electricity Business Act, Art. 51-2(3) | 1 week | ~8,000 |
| Offshore-wind seabed and wind-condition survey | Marine Renewable Energy Sea-Area Utilization Act, Art. 8(2) | 1 month | ~43 |
The 140,000 change notifications and 52,000 change certifications a year, against 210,000 new certifications, are the number to sit with: amendments are almost as much of the workload as new projects, and each one is a three-month event. A Japanese renewable project is not certified once; it is managed through a series of certified changes across its life.
A note on published processing periods. A standard processing period (標準処理期間) is set under Article 6 of the Administrative Procedure Act: an agency must publish the period once it has set one, but meeting it is only a best-efforts duty, and the clock excludes time while an application sits with the applicant for correction. A published period is a target, not a commitment.
Offshore wind runs on a different track
For offshore wind, the decisive gate is not the tariff filing but the sea area. Under the Marine Renewable Energy Sea-Area Utilization Act (再エネ海域利用法), the government designates promotion zones and runs competitive auctions awarding roughly 30-year rights to occupy the sea area, jointly overseen by METI and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. Preliminary steps such as the seabed and wind-condition survey (Article 8(2)) precede it, and only after winning the sea-area auction does a consortium proceed through FIT/FIP certification and the electricity-business and construction steps. For a foreign developer, offshore wind is therefore a multi-year, multi-stage commitment in which the auction, not the certificate, decides who is in.
Where this becomes a public affairs question
The certification is administrative, but almost everything that determines whether a certified project makes money is policy. The tariff and premium levels, the auction design and ceiling prices, the rules on curtailment when the grid is oversupplied, and above all the allocation and expansion of grid capacity are all set upstream, by ANRE, by OCCTO, and through the advisory councils where the next revision is drafted. A developer that treats Japan as a certification exercise will be reading a rulebook whose terms were set without it. The projects that succeed secure the grid connection early, choose the right regime, and engage on the policy that sets the price and the grid rules while those rules are still being written.
Gemini Group advises renewable developers, sponsors, and investors on ANRE and METI engagement, grid and auction strategy, and the FIT/FIP framework that decides project economics in Japan. Contact us to discuss your Japan renewable energy strategy.
Further reading: our ANRE explainer covers the agency at the center of the power question, Japan’s Seventh Strategic Energy Plan sets out where national energy policy is heading, and our overview of NEDO covers the public funding that sits alongside the tariff.
Frequently asked questions
- Do you need certification to build a renewable energy project in Japan?
- To earn a FIT tariff or a FIP premium, yes. Almost every renewable generation project in Japan first obtains business-plan certification (事業計画認定) under Article 9(1) of the FIT/FIP Act from METI's Agency for Natural Resources and Energy. A project can in principle sell power on the wholesale market without it, but it then forgoes the support scheme that underpins most project economics, so in practice certification is the gate. It is separate from, and additional to, the electricity-business and construction approvals every generating facility needs.
- How long does FIT or FIP certification take in Japan?
- The published standard processing period for business-plan certification under Article 9(1) is three months, with no fee. Crucially, changes to a certified plan run on the same three-month clock, whether they are a change requiring re-certification under Article 10(1) or a change notification under Article 10(2). Anyone modelling a development timeline should budget certification, and any later amendment to it, as a quarter each, and should not assume a variation is quicker than the original filing.
- What is the difference between FIT and FIP in Japan?
- Under the Feed-in Tariff (FIT), the utility buys the project's output at a fixed price for the support term, so the generator carries no market-price risk. Under the Feed-in Premium (FIP), introduced in 2022, the generator sells into the wholesale market and receives a premium on top, exposing it to price signals while still supporting revenue. Japan has been steering larger and newer projects from FIT toward FIP, and toward competitive auctions for large solar and wind, so which regime a project certifies into increasingly depends on its size and technology.
- What does FIT/FIP certification require?
- A certifiable business plan needs, among other things, a secured grid connection, defined site and equipment, and compliance with the plan-content and maintenance rules. The grid connection is usually the practical bottleneck: capacity is allocated on the regional grid before a project can be certified, and in constrained regions that queue is the binding constraint on the whole timeline. Certification confirms the project is real and rule-compliant; it does not create grid capacity that is not there.
- How are offshore wind projects certified in Japan?
- Offshore wind runs on a separate track under the Marine Renewable Energy Sea-Area Utilization Act (再エネ海域利用法). The government designates promotion zones and runs competitive auctions awarding roughly 30-year rights to occupy the sea area; the winning consortium then proceeds through FIT/FIP business-plan certification and the electricity-business and construction steps. It is a multi-year, multi-stage process, and the sea-area auction, not the tariff filing, is the decisive gate.
- Who administers renewable energy certification in Japan?
- METI's Agency for Natural Resources and Energy (ANRE, 資源エネルギー庁) administers the FIT/FIP regime and the business-plan certification. Grid connection is controlled by the regional transmission companies, coordinated nationally by OCCTO, and offshore-wind sea-area rights are run jointly by METI and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. For the agency itself, see our ANRE explainer.