Power Up! Moscow, Tokyo Mull Venture to Bring Electricity From Russia to Honshu

Japanese telecom firm SoftBank has proposed setting up a joint venture with Russia’s Rosset as a step toward power transfers from Russia’s Far East to the island nation, a senior minister in the region said.

TOKYO (Sputnik) — The joint venture would be responsible for laying a power cable across the Sea of Japan/East Sea all the way to Japan’s main island of Honshu.

"We agreed to work together," Alexander Galushko, a Russian minister in charge of developing Russia’s Far East, told RIA Novosti.

"The Japanese partners suggested working through the details of a plan to create a joint Russian-Japanese project company by SoftBank and Rosset. We support this undertaking," he said, adding the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, or JBIC, was ready to join in the initiative.

Galushko said he had met with SoftBank’s managers on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok last week to discuss the plan of ultimately creating the so-called Asian energy ring, which is expected to span several nations in the region.

"We discussed the energy ring project…It will provide for energy transfer to Japan through the Far East. The Japanese partners believe it would be more viable to lay out a supply route from Primorye straight to Honshu," Galushko explained.

The Asian energy super ring project aims to unify power grids in Russia, Japan, South Korea, China and Mongolia. It is expected to consist of separate energy bridges.