Japan Embraces Lab-Made Fuels Despite Costs, Climate Concerns

For Japan’s largest utilities, lab-made fuels are a meaningful step toward greener energy that also extends the life of billions of dollars’ worth of existing fossil-fuel infrastructure.

For their critics, products like “e-methane” and “syngas” are not an attractive compromise but an expensive distraction, at a time when the country — already a climate laggard in global terms — should instead be accelerating its shift to renewable power.

Eager to win over naysayers, companies like Electric Power Development Co. and Osaka Gas Co. have seized on this year’s World Expo in Osaka, packing last week’s launch event with mascots, virtual ...