Japan is the world’s third largest electricity market after China and the U.S., consuming about 1,000 TWh each year of electricity, the equivalent of 25% of Europe’s total.
Japan has a hybrid power market (partially deregulated); the retail market was fully liberalized in 2016, establishing imbalance settlement based on market price. TOCOM launched power futures in 2019, and EEX launched in 2020 and now has 95% of the market share.
Today, Japan has over 700 Power Producer Suppliers (PPS / energy retail companies), about 300 companies trading on the spot market, and 110 companies trading on EEX. Yet, the Japanese power market is still in its infancy, in particular from a talent perspective.
Last month, Titan headed to E-World Energy & Water in Germany, gaining a chance to contrast the European and Japanese markets from a talent lens.
E-World vs Japanese events
This 25th edition of E-World, Energy & Water in Germany was a record breaking year with over 37,000 attendees from 126 different countries, and over 1,100 exhibitors across power trading, utilities, consulting & analytics, offtake solutions, optimization solutions and data / AI / IoT. The event spanned three days, across six halls of a major exhibition venue.
Smart Energy Week in Tokyo this month has a similar size and scale over three days and boasts attendance and exhibition numbers. But SEW has a large focus on manufacturing supply chains, including OEMs and component suppliers across solar, wind, batteries, IoT systems, EV infrastructure, hydrogen and clean fuels.
For a more power market industry specific comparison in Japan, however, one needs to put the spotlight on Power Week, which takes place in October. This is a conglomeration of events sponsored by key players such as Vanir, EEX, Tullet Prebon, etc, and is more focused on seminars plus evening gatherings over drinks for cross-industry networking.
Power Week has grown from a couple of hundred attendees just four years ago to close to 1,000 in 2025, yet it is still much smaller, less structured and organized compared to events such as E-World in Europe.
The power talent market in Japan is at the same place as renewable energy talent was in 2015 — still nascent, with people joining from adjacent industries and learning as they go. In 2015 we saw an influx of people from manufacturers, finance and real estate move to power developers. Today, we see the shift from commodities, developers and power retailers becoming new power market participants.
Maturity of market, what happens at the event:
For Titan, as a player in the Japanese energy ecosystem, we noticed E-World’s scale as the first and obvious impact. One layer beyond that though is the size of the organizations. Whereas in Tokyo you will have power trading organizations with between two to 20 people in the business across front, middle and back office, at E-World you would see the major players bringing 10-25 front office people just to the event.
During E-World’s daytime hours, all the trader booths were full and not with people browsing. Meetings were booked ahead of time, clients, partners, offtakers were meeting the traders, getting updates on pricing, products and global expansion efforts. Deals were not necessarily signed on the spot, however a significant effort of account management and new business development was conducted from 9AM to 4PM.
Similar situations at the booths of the solution providers, consulting firms, etc that were also educating new prospects and updating / managing existing relationships. From 4PM the vibe changed, beers cracked open, cocktails started flowing, music began pumping and people let their hair down. Traders caught up with competitors, people exchanged information, views and generally caught up in a relaxed environment.
Japan Power Week is not yet at that stage. Most important matters take place after 4PM, where the traders, originators, brokers, intel providers get together, talk, drink, exchange opinions and gossip. Daylight business still happens, but not so much at the event. Rather, it is more private, behind closed doors, and by invite.
For global companies in the power markets hiring in Japan, whether they be a trader, optimizer, intelligence provider or other, the sheer size of the talent market is a fraction of Europe’s.
Trading ecosystem development:
A similar story played out with other market participants such as trading optimization solution providers, PPA advisories and market intelligence platforms. These players commonly have hundreds of members, with the same 10-25 commercial focused members in attendance, manning the booths, giving demos and working on business development.
Advanced, AI-based trading and asset optimization solutions commonly had teams between 50-200 members, most of them engineers and data scientists. In Japan you may see teams of 5-20, all newer to the market and with a fraction of the number of companies playing the game.
Market intel and forecasting is the same. The booths and show of force from players such as Montel or Volue was impressive – yet in Japan Montel is non-existent and Volue has a small presence. Baringa, Wood Mackenzie and AFRY have direct market presence here, but again this is limited to a handful of people. Aurora would be the exception to the rule, with enough of a local team to be able to host an event, man a booth and show powerful presence.
This is an illustration of a younger market, resulting in a smaller and less experienced talent pool; however, it also demonstrates a more fragmented Asian market. Despite Japan’s impressive market size in terms of TWh procured, it is still a single-country market.
Talent mobility:
Continuing on the theme of Japan as a single-country market, the talent needed to service the industry will not reach Europe’s level, and it does not need to. Language is a major factor. Of over 700 power retail companies, most do not employ any English speakers. Over 90% of staff employed by the 10 power utilities are monolingual Japanese.
Foreign talent makes up about 5% of Japan’s workforce across the wider energy industry. This is in stark contrast to Europe, where members from early movers such as the UK and Denmark mobilize rapidly into high growth markets such as Germany.
Japan has a local, domestic, homogenous talent market, but multinational players are entering the market. Japan is modeling its structures on UK, U.S. and European mature versions; still, at the ground level there is less mobility and exchange of talent.
For global firms looking to hire, the language barrier and lower mobility mean that not only the total market size is smaller, but the total relevant, addressable market is a fraction of what prospective employers have access to back at home.
Andrew Statter is a Partner at Titan GreenTech, an executive recruitment agency focused on the clean energy space.