Dissecting the Japanese Fusion Industry Landscape

Deep dive into which companies there are, and what fusion products they focus on

This article will be regularly updated with more information. The current overview had been created with information available in February 2022.

Japanese companies that build large scale fusion reactors or components for fusion reactors. Several companies in other sectors (heavy industry, material, chemical, etc) have been providing parts for ITER or JT-60SA.

Pure Fusion Companies

There are few Japanese fusion startups. However, the number has recently been increasing with governmental support growing. Prime minister Kishida now officially adopted fusion energy as part of the Japanese energy policy and as a way to reduce CO2 consumption. Just last year (2021) two new fusion startups were founded, following years of university research. The list now comprises:

• Kyoto Fusioneering (Founded in Oct 2019)
  Spun out of Kyoto University. Areas of interest are not the plasma itself but plant components: breeder blankets, divertors, plasma heating, pumps, tritium technology, liquid metals, molten salts and more. Collaboration with several research institutes including Kyoto University, QST, Osaka University, and NIFS.
  Funding: USD 18.6M as of July 2022
• Ex-Fusion (Founded in July 2021)
  Founded by Associate Prof Mori from GPI in Shizuoka with researchers from Osaka University
  Laser-powered fusion plant based on research on free fall pellets
  Funding: USD 1.3M as of July 2022
  Target: 2029–2034 commercial reactor
• Helical Fusion (Founded in Oct 2021)
  Spun out of Sokendai University (close to Kamakura)
  Plans for building a helical fusion device (stellerator) with aim to deliver electricity
  Plan: 2040 start of commercial reactor
• For completeness we mention an older startup that is focussed on cold fusion. However cold fusion has little scientific credibility and caution is advised: Clean Planet (Founded in 2012)

Traditional energy companies and companies that have been delivering parts to ITER or JT-60SA

Several of the traditional technology company that are involved in other power plants have delivered components for Japanese research reactors or ITER. Typically only few products are focussed on the fusion industry among their larger portfolios though.

• Mitsubishi Heavy Industry
  TF-Coils for ITER
• Hitachi
  Even though a US subsidiary, Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy, deals with nuclear energy, it seems that Hitachi designs and maintains fusion experiments (JT-60, LHD) under Healthcare Solution department.
• Toshiba Energy
  TF coils, remote handling, vacuum vessel assembly of JT-60-SA and others
• Mikuni
  Vacuum pumps for ITER
• Canon Electron Tubes & Devices (previously part of Toshiba)
  Gyrotrons for plasma heating
• Kaken
  Solid breeder for ITER-TBM and tritium capturing
• NGK Insulators
  Subsidiary NGK Berylco is producer of BeCU alloys
• Kimura Chemical Plants Co (KCPC)
  Top lid for JT-60
• Sukegawa Electric Co., Ltd.
  Sensors, divertor cassette installation, LiPb, FLiNaK
• Yamato Gokin
  Divertor: copper alloy tube with twisted channel and first wall panel
• A.L.M.T. Corp (Sumitomo Electric Industries Group)
  Divertor: Tungsten monoblocks

Superconducting magnets

The four main Japanese suppliers of superconducting magnet tape, including high-temperature superconducting magnets, are:

• Sumitomo
• Fujikura
• Furukawa
• JASTEC

This list might not be complete or contain some mistakes. Please let me know in comments if you think something is amiss.

Updates:

• July 2022: Added A.L.M.T