When Masayoshi Son heard about the nuclear meltdowns in Fukushima last year, he had a mini meltdown of his own. The chief executive of telecommunications and Internet company Softbank Corp. —these days best known as the man who brought Apple Inc.’s iPhone to Japan—says he told his board he was so concerned by the accident that he couldn’t concentrate on his job anymore. Mr. Son said he planned to quit and work on energy issues instead. “We had a big, big fight,” Mr. Son told attendees at a renewable-energy conference earlier this year. “Shouting…banging the table.” The volatile Mr. Son was ultimately persuaded to stay. But he has also become one of the most outspoken advocates of a new energy era in Japan, arguing that solar and wind power, and some outside-the-box thinking, could take the place of electricity generated by nuclear reactors—and many fossil-fuel plants as well. To read the full article, click here: First the iPhone. Now Renewables.