Painted pale yellow and green, a windmill with a difference is at work on farmland in an area once occupied by Japan's second-largest lake.
     What makes the windmill -- the first of its kind developed in Japan --unusual is that it does not feature propeller-like blades.
     Instead, it has five spinning cylinders with spiral fins.
     The innovative wind turbine was installed this year in a landscape of rice paddies and vegetable fields in the village of Ogata in Akita Prefecture. The village came into being in 1964 after Lake Hachiro was drained to make way for a model farming community.
     Mecaro Co. of Katagami in the prefecture is the maker of the new wind power generator, which stands about 18 meters tall and is called the ''Magnus turbine.'' The name derives from the so-called Magnus effect, in which a cylindrical object rotating in a fluid creates a change in pressure in the surrounding area that exerts force.
     Nobuhiro Murakami, representative director of Mecaro, said, ''Almost all windmills in Japan are foreign-made. I wondered whether it would be possible to manufacture one domestically.''
     In fiscal 2006, imported windmills accounted for about 75 percent of all those installed in Japan with an output of 10 kilowatts or above.
     Japan looked into wind power generation in the 1970s as a possible alternative source of energy to oil. However, the government did not attach much importance to windmills because they were considered unsuitable for the mountainous Japanese archipelago, where there are frequent changes in wind strength and direction. As a result, German and other foreign makers were able to gain the edge in the market.
     Murakami, 45, felt he had to create a windmill suited to local conditions. In the process of repeated experiments, he found that a cylinder with fins could get stronger lift than a propeller blade, and with one-sixth of the effort.
     He also discovered that spinning cylinders are stronger, more stable, less noisy and less vulnerable to damage than propeller-type blades.
     The cylinder survived a wind with a velocity of 50 meters per second in a test conducted by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
     A graduate of a local technical college, Murakami first worked at a company related to the automobile industry and later moved to a parts-processing firm. At age 32, he set up Mecaro with a staff of six.
     Initially, the company made manufacturing equipment, and its products were popular with makers since they helped to automate production and so reduce the number of people needed to man the line. Murakami, however, was reluctant to develop products that would deprive workers of their jobs.
     He started working on the Magnus windmill in 2003. At the time, everyone around him regarded it as the boss's hobby. ''They only half believed me (when I told them the plan) but they cooperated,'' he said.
     Chief technician Toru Shibata, 49, joined Mecaro two years ago from a semiconductor manufacturer where he worked for 27 years.
     He said that when he first heard about the wind turbine he felt it stood no chance of success. However, when he was later asked for his input, he became more interested and decided that he would like to work on something that in later life he could say he had been a part of.
     The Magnus windmill is small in size with an output of 12KW. It could be used by a factory to generate its own power supply.
     Murakami said his company is receiving inquiries from overseas.
     He said that when the number of Magnus turbines in production increases, the price per unit could come down. The device's power-generation capabilities are approaching those of solar power, he said.
     ''Times have changed. Companies are thinking seriously not only about cost but also about the environment.''
     As of the end of March this year, about 1,300 windmills with a total output of about 1.5 million kilowatts were in operation in Japan, according to the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization. The number represented a 10-fold rise from fiscal 2000.
     Japan's northern main island of Hokkaido leads all other prefectures in terms of the number of windmills it hosts. One primary reason was the implementation of a law in 2003 making it obligatory for electric power companies to purchase a fixed volume of electricity generated by windmills.
     On the other hand, profitability is a major obstacle in the way of introducing windmills to Japan, as it reportedly costs several hundred million yen to build one.
     ''The power generation cost is relatively high'' because the volume of power output changes according to the strength of the wind, said an official of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
     A Magnus windmill can be installed for about 26 million yen. Given its small size, it is being considered for use in meeting private power demand rather than for generating electricity to sell to power companies.
     ''I want Akita (Prefecture) to be energized,'' Murakami said. ''Employment will rise if a local area can do business with the rest of the world.''
==Kyodo