Japan:

Geothermal Power Tests Tradition in Japan (New York Times)

Tarobee Ito, 69, is the guardian of a family legacy that has survived for more than 12 generations, since the middle of the Edo period: He manages Tarobee Ryokan, a traditional Japanese onsen ryokan, or hot spring inn, named after an 18th-century ancestor who established it as one of about a dozen inns at the Oyasu thermal gorge near Yuzawa City in Akita Prefecture, northern Japan.

The Daifunto thermal area, known as the Great Onsen Fountain, near Yuzawa City in northern Japan. Responding to safety concerns in the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, the Japanese government recently said it would aim to triple renewable energy sources, including geothermal

But Mr. Ito’s heritage may be under threat. The white steam, rising lazily from the thermal springs, has attracted developers with plans for a geothermal power plant in the Kurikoma Kokutei Koen, a mountainous area behind his inn that is a national monument.

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