*3.2. Energy and Material Consumption for the Entire Japanese Market*

Three representative aspects were considered to estimate the total energy consumption for the Japanese automotive industry: the average mass of a passenger car in Japan (1354 kg/vehicle) [29], the number of passenger cars produced annually in the country (9,729,594 vehicles) [30], and the energy that is required for the production of a vehicle (41.8 MJ/kg of vehicle) calculated in this study. It has been calculated, though the product of the above values, that the energy consumption that is related to the automotive industry is 0.55 EJ per year in Japan. Moreover, Figure 9a compares the obtained consumption values and the total energy consumption for different sectors. It can be seen that the energy consumption of the automotive industry represents 15% of the energy consumption of the Japanese industy. This also indicates that strategic decision- or policy-making through a comprehensive analysis of this phase could generate national-level energy benefits, emphasizing the importance of the approach that was proposed in this study. The energy consumption of the automotive industry is included in the "transportation equipment" sub-sector of industrial demand; however, in contrast to the values that are presented in this study, the material production processes are not included. In the referenced report [31], those values are distributed in the respective material production sub-sectors (i.e., material production processes of steel parts are included in the iron

and steel sub-sector, material production processes of plastic parts are included in the chemistry sub-sector, etc.).

**Figure 9.** Effect of the automotive industry on Japanese energy and material consumption: (**a**) energy consumption [31]; (**b**) material consumption [32]

On the other hand, the materials and resources consumed in the industry were calculated as 69 million tons per year, representing more than 9.4% of the annual imported resources of Japan, as shown in Figure 9b.
