168 additional CO₂ stores by Japanese retailers to receive subsidy

On 25 September 2014, Japan’s Refrigerants and Environmental Conservation Organisation (JRECO) announced the result of the second round of selection under the investment grant scheme of the Ministry of Environment (MOE), which will provide a total of €36 million in subsidies in the fiscal year 2014 to incentivise natural refrigerant use. As a result, in the next 4-5 months leading Japanese retailers will be adding another 168 stores with CO₂ refrigeration systems. The total number of CO₂ stores in Japan is expected to be between 650 and 700 by the end of March 2015.

Lawson leads the race – 550 CO₂ stores expected by March 2015

Leading Japanese convenience store (CVS) chains are starting to invest heavily in new CO₂ stores. Lawson, with 150 CO₂ CVS currently in operation, will receive subsidies for a total of 325 CO₂ stores but will also invest in additional CO₂ stores to reach a total of approximately 550 CO₂ stores by the end of March 2015.

According to Mr. Uto, leading advocate of CO₂ technology at Lawson, the company plans to make CO₂ refrigeration technology a standard in all new stores, regardless of subsidy programmes. In the fiscal year 2015 Lawson could reach the impressive number of 1,000 new CO₂ stores installed in one year.

7-Eleven, a new rising star – 57 CO₂ stores in one year

After initially receiving subsidies for the first 11 CO₂ CVS, as a result of the second round of selection 7-Eleven Japan, the Japanese CVS market leader and the world's largest operator, franchisor, and licensor of convenience stores with more than 50,000 outlets, will add an additional 46 CO₂ stores to its fleet. This will make 7-Eleven Japan second only in number of CO₂ stores to Lawson. Advanced technology from Japanese suppliers such as Panasonic and Sanden, suitable in particular for CVS, will be installed in a minimum of 20 additional CVS operated by Ministop (CVS brand of AEON Group), Circle K Sunkus and Family Mart.

26 new CO₂ supermarkets, including “firsts” for some retailers

In addition to the large number of new CO₂ CVS, 26 new supermarket (SM) stores will come online in the next four to five months as a result of two rounds of subsidy selection. AEON will add a minimum of 10 CO₂ SMs through its brands AEON Retail, MaxValu and AEON Big. Among other recipients of the subsidy Coop Sapporo and Miyagi Coop will add two new CO₂ stores, and U Co-op will add one new CO₂ SM to the already existing ones. Ito-Yokado, a Japanese general merchandise store, part of Seven & i Holdings, had 178 stores operating in Japan as of March 2013 and will install its first three CO₂ supermarkets. Department store Fujisaki will add its first two CO₂ stores. Daiei, one of the largest supermarket chains in Japan based in Kobe, will install its first CO₂ SM. The complete list accessible bellow (in Japanese).

Japanese end-users can benefit from €57 million in subsidies for natural refrigerant technology

In 2013, the Ministry of the Environment outlined the government subsidy scheme encouraging operators to use natural refrigerants. Compared to the current fiscal year, in the fiscal year 2015, the programme budget, which encourages operators to use natural refrigerants, will increase significantly from 5 billion JPY to a total of 7.8 billion JPY (about €56.6 million) to support the use of natural refrigerants in:

• Refrigerated warehouses (in 2014 covering 50% of investment cost)
• Food processing facilities (newly added to the scope of the subsidy)
• Retail store showcases (in 2014 covering 1/3 of investment cost)