By Ikuko Kao TOKYO, April 11 (Reuters) - Executives from some 100 Japanese companies will gather in Tokyo this week with counterparts from about 50 Chinese firms, seeking energy saving, clean coal and nuclear power technologies and hoping to clinch future deals. Energy policymakers from both countries will also meet on Thursday during China's Premier Wen Jiabao's first visit to Japan, whose fuel efficiency is the highest in the world. Energy saving and the environment will be in focus at the energy meetings both at business and government levels because these are integral parts of Wen's national policy, said Takahide Kiuchi, a senior economist at Nomura Securities Co. "China aims to introduce the cutting edge environmental and energy saving technologies from Japanese companies." Tokyo and Beijing may agree on cooperation on greenhouse gas emission cuts to publicise thawing Sino-Japan tensions, while the international community is increasingly concerned over the lack of a climate scheme after 2012, when the United Nations-led Kyoto Protocol to limit global warming will expire, Kiuchi said. China, which could overtake the United States as the world's biggest carbon emitter within the year, is not subject to binding emissions targets under the Kyoto plan. A long-standing diplomatic spat over gas fields in disputed East China waters may be touched upon as Japan's Trade Minister Akira Amari will meet Ma Kai, head of China's energy policy-setting National Development and Reform Commission. But the issue will not be the main subject at the official talks and it will not be the main interest of business executives, a Japanese trade ministry official said. "The interest of the Chinese side is energy saving," the official said. "It is also highly interested in nuclear energy as it plans to add more nuclear power generation capacity." China and Japan are the world's second and third largest oil consumers after the United States. About 50 Chinese firms will participate in the meetings including China Guangdong Nuclear Power Co. (CGNPC) and China Huaneng Group, which owns Huaneng Power International <HNP.N>, the country's largest listed electricity producer. Japanese participants include the nation's top utility Tokyo Electric Power Co. <9501.T> (TEPCO). It is Japan's top utility and operates 19 of the country's 55 nuclear units. Japan has the world's third largest nuclear power generation capacity after the U.S. and France. Chinese firms are also keen on other Japanese technologies, such as improving efficiency of natural gas liquefication and cleaner coal use at thermal power plants, the trade ministry official said. Coal accounts for a large part of China's primary energy needs. But it is blamed as the dirtiest fuel which emits more greenhouse gas than other fuels, while natural gas and nuclear pollute less. Japan's biggest engineering contractor JGC Corp. <1963.T> will present its technology to promote Clean Development Mechanism projects in the coal industry under the Kyoto Protocol. China's top offshore oil and gas producer, China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC), will present its view about Beijing's need for technology to make liquefied natural gas (LNG) as it plans to build its first natural gas-liquefying plant in southern China.
