Japan's First Citizen-Funded Wind Turbines

Registered as a nonprofit in Sapporo in 1999-2000, Hokkaido Green Fund built Japan's first citizen-funded wind turbine, nicknamed 'Hamakaze-chan,' in Hamatonbetsu in September 2001, financed 80% by resident investment and 20% by a bank loan. The model spread nationally, inspiring the country's broader 'community power' movement that accelerated after the 2011 Fukushima disaster, and the fund also spun off Community Wind Power Co. and Japan Green Fund Co. to manage renewable-energy investment partnerships across Japan. As of April 2025 the organization had been involved in developing 60 wind turbines nationwide, 25 of them citizen-funded, drawing roughly 4,980 cumulative citizen investors and about 2.9 billion yen in community investment.