Japanese government tightens foreign investment rules for power companies

The Japanese government has tightened foreign investment rules for power companies. As per the revised law, the threshold that foreigners are allowed to hold an equity stake in Japanese-listed companies has been reduced from 10 per cent to 1 per cent in sectors deemed critical to national security, including electricity and nuclear facilities. Foreign ownership above the threshold will be subjected to a pre-screening process. This will apply to transmission and distribution utilities, and generation utilities with capacities of 50 MW and above.