TOKYO, JAPAN: While China develops its economy through a coal-fueled haze, do you think Asia's developed countries are in the clear? With regional fuel supplies squeezed and toxic clouds drifting around, many here in Japan will tell you otherwise.

The theme of this trip is to show you where Asia has been, where it is, and where it is headed. There is no better prism through which I can cast this story than the energy market.

China is planning to construct over 500 coal-fired power plants before 2012, obliterating emissions reduction targets set in the Kyoto Protocol that was signed here in Japan ten years ago. China doesn't mind--its Kyoto requirements and those of India were virtually nil. I even watched an English-language TV game show in China on my last visit there where a contestant happily proclaimed China's Kyoto participation.

That would be like me saying that I adhere to all of the steroid bans for Olympic athletes. It's an empty gesture.

The developing country exemption from carbon caps is also the groove that the Bush administration loves to slide into when casting off America's carbon-cutting responsibilities and pulling out of Kyoto altogether.

I mean, isn't it lovely that we look to nations that recently endured famines as role models for the world's strongest economy?

Again, the Japanese say no.

The Creeping Cloud of Coal

Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and the Philippines all chalk up increasing acid rain to China's coal craze. Collieries are collapsing in Shaanxi, China's coal province (and where I'll be next week, surgical mask optional), but having a mountain fall on your head isn't the only health hazard the soot and slag can pose.

For an obvious reason, Japan and Germany are part of an exclusive club of the world's biggest economies who can say that they had two major phases of industrial infancy.

After World War II, a historically anomalous combination of post-war rebuilding by the defeated and a massive influx of money from the victors--competing Soviet and American spheres of finance--fed the Japanese growth spurt that culminated in the early 1990s.

These days, the wave of karaoke bars and sushi joints that popped up around the United States and spread xenophobic rage about Japanese takeovers two decades ago has yielded to a China-wary sentiment.

Yet few care to compare China's rise with the Japanese Rising Sun boom of the eighties--except those over here who are eager to share experience and wealth at the same time.

Though Japan has the world's #3 total energy consumption (behind the U.S. and China), and is the #2 net importer of foreign oil, the country's energy intensity is about half the average for the OECD (the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, or "the rich countries' club").

Don't be fooled by the neon mega-signs you see in the movies--per capita energy use is on the wane.

Mitsubishi, the Japanese conglomerate whose operations range from automobiles to televisions, recently spent 15 billion yen for an ownership stake in China Shenhua Energy.

That sounds like a heck of a lot, but knock off a couple of zeros to get the dollar value, and you end up with a 0.2% share of the Chinese coal giant.

Hong Kong-traded shares of China Shenhua Energy Company Limited have skyrocketed, along with the world's new largest company, PetroChina Company Limited (NYSE:PTR), and other enticing China plays, not because of their clean or green strategy but because the Chinese energy bull market demands attention.

As the past, present and future of Asian energy converge, Mitsubishi has the stated goal of helping the Chinese coal king clean up its act. Through carbon capture technology, wastewater treatment plants to help de-gunk China's filthy waterways (17 of the 20 most polluted rivers and streams on the planet!), and emissions trading expertise to help offset its soot on the international scene, Japanese businesses like Mitsubishi are keen to get their point across and head off some of those toxic clouds before they form.

Japanese engineers are also looking at the other side of Asia, the Middle East--heading to Dubai to cooperate with the new state-backed Masdar energy company to lessen that emirate's astonishing energy use increases.

Dubai is on track to double its total energy use by 2015. Combine that with China and India's appetites, and you can't replace all the light bulbs or SUVs in the western world quickly enough to do a damn thing.

Fortunately, Jeff Siegel and I are keeping track of the countries and companies that set the pace, not only on the consumption end but also in market-based solutions. With our new Green Chip International service, we combine the gigantic global megatrend of energy consumption with smart science that is already making investors rich.

The action isn't just on Wall Street. With the world's #2 market cap for a stock exchange, the Tokyo Stock Exchange and its $4 trillion is host to a heap of ideas that will float from Japan to China to Dubai and beyond. It's an opportunity you can't miss.

This new service is only available to lifetime members right now. But in a couple of weeks, we'll be opening it up to everyone. So stay tuned.

Sayonara for now,

Sam Hopkins

Media / Interview Requests? Click Here.