Public Perception on Hydrogen Infrastructure in Japan

A public survey was conducted in March 2015 in Japan asking public awareness, knowledge, perception and acceptance regarding hydrogen, hydrogen infrastructure and fuel cell vehicle adopting the same key questions contained in the public surveys conducted six and seven years ago. Changes in answers between two different times of survey implementation were analyzed by comparing results of current survey to those of the previous surveys. Regression analyses were conducted and revealed influence of respondents’ awareness, knowledge and perception about hydrogen, hydrogen infrastructure and fuel cell vehicle on their acceptance on hydrogen station. We found a large increase in the awareness and relatively a small improvement on knowledge on hydrogen energy, hydrogen infrastructure and fuel cell vehicle from the previous surveys. In contrast we did not find much changes in perception of risk and benefit perception on hydrogen society and hydrogen station and public acceptance of hydrogen infrastructure. Through the regression analyses we found large influences of negative risk perception of hydrogen itself and technology of hydrogen station and perception of necessity of hydrogen station on public acceptance of hydrogen station and the small influence of time background on the acceptance. Through the results of analyses, implications to public communication in building public infrastructure are presented.