Buddhist Alternatives to Nuclear Energy:
So what is the alternative to nuclear power? to fossil fuels? to consumer lifestyles based on excessive consumption? Japanese Buddhists are now calling for reclaiming the traditional “buddhistic” lifestyle of contentment「少欲知足」(Jp. shoyoku-chisoku, Pali. santuti). Some are also trying to show the new way forward with ecological living based around the temple. The core of this work is now centered on the international Eco-Temple Community Development Project. Below are activities centered within Japan:
- Amrita Zen Life: Good Things and Good Deeds in Daily Life (November 10, 2025)
- Tera Energy: “Illuminating” Society with New Electric Power (October 10, 2025)
- Into the 21st Century with Holistic Buddhist Development for Urban Spaces: A Sri Lanka-Japan Collaboration (September 9-11, 2025)
- Thinking as a Citizen and a Religious Leader: Interview with Rev. Hidehito Okochi (August 1, 2024)
- Energy as a Way of Life: Japanese Buddhist Priests Reflect on the Ukraine and Sri Lanka Crises While Calling for Local Energy Self-Sufficiency (Buddhist Door Global August 12, 2022)
- Tera Energy: Buddhist Priests Selling Energy to Support Communities & the Maintenance of Temples (Bukkyo Times May 16, 2019 & Mainichi Newspaper October 25, 2018)
- Shift the Power: Building a Buddhist Temple Community as a Mechanism for Environmental and Social Change (November 2, 2018)
- Kenju-in: An Eco-Temple Protecting Forests and Building Health and Longevity through Everyone’s Energy
- Conference in Frankfurt, Germany: The “Energy Shift” – What Can Religious Groups Contribute? hosted by the Center for Ecumenical Work of the Protestant Church of Hesse and Nassau (March 3-6, 2015) papers in English, Japanese, and German
- Japan-Taiwan Buddhist Exchange on Nuclear & Clean Energy (January 15-19, 2015)
- Japanese-Korean Buddhist Exchange Program on Nuclear & Clean Energy (July 3-5, 2014)
- Rinzai Myoshin-ji Zen Denomination Adds “No Nuclear Support Expense” into Regular Budget (Chugai Nippo, January 29, 2013)
- Jodo Shin Pure Land Honganji Denomination’s Ryukoku University Sponsors First-Ever Social Contribution Mega-Solar Power Plant Project in Japan (January 16, 2013)
- See photos of completed project (November 5, 2013)
- RSE & the Religious Based Solar Power Generators Association (November 2012)
- The Religious and Scholarly Eco Initiative (RSE) 5th Public Symposium on Religion and the Environment (October 25, 2014)
- Japan’s Energy Shift: A Message from Avory Lovins (NHK Broadcasting June 2013)
- The Choice of Development Paradigms in Japan after the 3:11 Fukushima Nuclear Disaster (Jun Nishikawa)
- A Futuristic Priest whose Time Has Arrived: Rev. Hidehito Okochi (Jonathan Watts)
JNEB 