The headline seem like science fiction but it’s the reality that Japan is leading in the competition to produce zero emission hydrogen-fueled cars. The country aims to curtail or rather cut down CO2 emissions up to 80 percent by 2050. Their belief that transportation is responsible for nearly a quarter of those emissions has caused their participation in producing hydrogen-fuel cars for which they are leading in Asia today. Also the country is a world-beater in emerging fuel cell technologies.

A decade ago, the Japanese government anticipated to have five million fuel cell cars on the roads by now. The new goal is more practical, with a focus on building the essential infrastructure for very small-scale commercialization by 2015.

NEDO's Ms. Shish do says, “2015 –will be the key year for Japan and this will be the commencing year for utilization of fuel-cell vehicles by the general public.”

London-based managing director of Intelligence Automotive Asia, Ashwin Chotai states that, “Hydrogen is still in very, very early days but in the area of green cars, Japan has been investing a lot further ahead than the Western companies in the last few years, and they have an edge."

Japanese automakers such as Toyota are developing an affordable range of hydrogen-fuelled cars. The Japanese government however is financing fuel cell growth and teaming up closely with energy and auto companies to build Japan's "hydrogen highway" of the future. Even Japanese energy firms are dynamically working together with the government to erect the hydrogen car infrastructure. Tomohide Satomi, member of the Fuel Cell Commercialization Conference of Japan, says such firms are looking into the future and seeing a need to develop new products as gas sales decrease.