Developed countries with minimal energy self-sufficiency struggle with lowering their dependence on oil and coal. Security guarantees countermeasures against global warming, and ensuring new energy sources are issues that have driven their choices between nuclear power generation and promotion of renewable energy resources in recent years. Individual nations such as Japan and Germany have been implementing various policies according to their own political and social circumstances, and often these circumstances include discussions and negotiations among diverse actors with different viewpoints and objectives. The networks formed by overcoming the cleavage between the electric power industry and the community consisting mainly of environmental organizations and left-wing political forces could also function as an additional means for environmental actors to break through the impasse formed by the political structure. However, in assessing the effectiveness of the ties that overcome this confrontation, in addition to the existence of ties that connect such communities, it is also necessary to consider whether the influence of environmental actors through intermediary networks extends to the policy formation process. This paper describes the networks involved in the renewable energy feed-in tariff system enacted in Japan after March 2011 and in Germany in the early 2000s and 2012 to investigate such influences. When comparing the energy policies of Japan and Germany, corresponding networks unifying the two communities in both countries were observed in an analysis that emphasizes the existence of ties. However, an in-depth analysis of attitude-based networks and hyperlink

As an information provision and communications medium, websites offer networking opportunities for politicians, particularly in terms of hyperlinking capabilities. Hyperlinks are unique in that they can be used to actually connect the website viewer with other politicians, interest/support groups, government institutions, political parties, local communities, and individual users. Furthermore, as noted by Park and Jankowski (2008), ‘‘a hyperlink is not a monolithic construct and can entail several activities with important implications for communications.’’ Although politicians’ hyperlinked relationships have been analyzed with reference to South Korean politicians (Park and Thelwall, 2008), to date, no studies are available that focus on the networks revealed through hyperlinks on Japanese Diet member websites. The within article analyzes hyperlinks found on a sample of 100 Japanese politician websites in 2010 and demonstrates that hyperlinks may serve as prominent displays of position, interest, authority, affiliation, and power-base relations.

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Energy policy is known to have higher path dependency among policy fields (Kuper and van Soest, 2003;OECD, 2012;Kikkawa, 2013) and is a critical component of the infrastructure development undertaken in the early stages of nation building. Actor roles, such as those played by interest groups, are firmly formed, making it unlikely that institutional change can be implemented. In resource-challenged Japan, energy policy is an especially critical policy area for the Japanese government. In comparing energy policy making in Japan and Germany, Japan's policy community is relatively firm (Hartwig et al., 2015) IntroductionSince the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred on March 11, 2011, energy policy has become a hotly debated policy field throughout the world. Particularly in Japan, the discourse concerning energy policy has evolved into multiple policy trajectories with competing preferences. On one hand, there are assertions that even though Japan experienced a major accident involving nuclear power, policy concerning nuclear power has not evolved into complete de-nuclearization. Proponents of this policy who are concerned about maintaining Japan's economy claim that there is a need for Japan to re-open the nuclear energy power plants that were shut down shortly after the March 11, 2011 nuclear accident at the Fukushima Dai'ichi nuclear power plant. On the other hand, there are critics of this policy line who advocate serious consideration of the development of safe, non-nuclear energy resources and who assert that expanding new sources of energy will provide tremendous benefits to the country in the future.From a theoretical point of view, among the various policy fields that are intrinsic to creating national policies, energy policy is arguably the most important and is said to have a higher path dependency compared to other policy areas (Kuper and van Soest, 2003;OECD, 2012, Kikkawa, 2013). Determining energy policy, which is strongly connected to a nation's economic growth and political stability, requires inputs from multiple actors, identifying current energy needs, and forecasting future requirements. Yet, despite the possibilities for fluid and abrupt change owing to extenuating circumstances, actor roles, such as those played by interest groups, are firmly formed, making it unlikely that institutional change can be implemented (Hartwig et al., 2015).In resource-challenged Japan, energy policy is an especially critical policy area for the Japanese government. In comparing energy policy creation in Japan and Germany, where the accident at the Fukushina Dai'ichi nuclear power plant had a major impact on energy policy, the range of actors in Japan's policy community is relatively stable (Hartwig et al., 2015). Furthermore, the Japanese government's approach to energy policy has shifted incrementally in the past half century, with the most recent being the 2012 implementation of the "Feed-In Tariff Law" (Act on Special Measures Concerning Procurement of Renewable Electric Energy by Operators of Electric Utili...

The nuclear meltdown in Fukushima, Japan, on March 11, 2011 ("3.11") prompted global changes in national energy policies. Public discourse created the image that "Fukushima" had prompted Germany's Energiewende, and much research asking why the reaction of decision-makers in Germany was significantly different from those in Japan has been conducted since that time. However, the effect on policy actors themselves in the policy-making network has been overlooked. Taking Germany's sociopolitical history into account, we question such conclusions and argue that the measurable effect is much less than some conclude. Using an unconventional merged methods research design and innovative survey instrument with a policy-actor-network approach (the G-GEPON 2 Survey), we asked major German policy actors, interest groups, stakeholders and civil society actors about their opinions, attitudes and governmental support regarding energy policy decisions pre-and post-Fukushima. We found that an established institutional landscape of policy actors and their cooperation in policy processes has not been affected by 3.11. New forms of inquiry for policy research show the potential to provide insights into policy processes which were not measurable with traditional single-method inquiries. Furthermore, we have found that emulation of national legal frameworks must consider sociopolitical traditions. We attempt to create new forms of investigation to reveal hidden structures in policy processes which are empirically difficult to grasp.