The Surplus-to-Structure framework — operationalised as Inari Protocol — is the analytical backbone of a firm working at the intersection of renewable energy, sovereign capability, and industrial design. Black Japan Group is the parent.
Principles that determine who the firm works with, how engagements are run, and what work is refused. Sophisticated buyers test for these — particularly DFIs (development finance institutions), sovereign clients, and indigenous authorities. They are reproduced here verbatim from the firm's operating documents.
Methodology is published; conclusions remain the client's. Policy work is supplied to incumbents, oppositions, and coalition partners on the same analytical basis. The framework provides the scaffolding for a position — it does not write the position.
Every assumption is documented. Every output is reproducible from inputs. Fidelity tiers (T1 screening through T3 bankable — ranging from early, indicative estimates to figures solid enough to secure financing) are visible on every result. The framework is built to survive hostile cross-examination — by a board, a parliamentary inquiry, or a hostile peer review.
The NZ instance of the upstream gate (CM-0) is back-tested across 2000–2024. Niue is a proven worked case. AU NEM (Australia's wholesale electricity market) is in flight. Other jurisdictions are calibrated on demand. The cases page tells this truth in detail.
Conflicts are managed by separating teams, disclosing parallel engagements at intake, and declining work where the conflict cannot be cleanly resolved. Where the firm advises on a jurisdiction and is also asked to co-develop projects in it, the two engagements are run as separate procurements with disclosure to the client.
The library is jurisdiction-aware. Most of it is universal — built once, used everywhere. A small set of cores require per-country calibration: the national surplus waterfall (CM-0), contract authority (CM-5), project finance (CM-6), and grid and cadastre (CM-9, the land-and-property register). Adding a new country means re-instantiating those against local data.
| Jurisdiction | Status | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| New Zealand | Calibrated | CM-0 back-tested 2000–2024 against MBIE data. Sectoral wealth/TWh (terawatt-hour) decomposition partial. Worked example on the cases page. |
| Australia · NEM | In flight | First-instance work underway against AEMO and ABS data. Regional waterfall (Pilbara, SA, QLD) takes precedence over national. Public-facing case to be published when complete. |
| Pacific · Niue + island template | Proven | Engineered-surplus pattern; the project library leads and CM-0 is secondary, but the engine runs the full span. Niue is a proven, end-to-end worked case. Parameter-swap template designed for ~20 island states. |
| Other | By demand | Approximately 12–24 weeks per jurisdiction to first instance. The universal layer is inherited; only the five jurisdictional cores require build. |
First-instance work in flight or under exploration is described in honest terms. Where a calibration is not yet validated, the cases page says so explicitly.
Black Japan Group is the parent firm. Inari Protocol is the framework and the product. The naming reflects a structural commitment: the framework outlives any single engagement, and the firm exists to advance it across many. Inari (稲荷) is the Shinto kami of rice, industry, and prosperity — the deity of productive surplus.
The firm is a strategy + platform + co-development house in the lineage of Macquarie (advisory + platform + principal), BlackRock (Aladdin model — platform as differentiator + advisory + AUM, assets under management), and the Climate Bonds Initiative (analytical authority + advocacy). Three lines of business, one library, conflict structures designed in from the start rather than retrofitted.
A scoping call is the first step. An hour to understand the question, then a proposed product — or an honest signal that the framework isn't a fit yet. We don't ship generic capability decks.
A scoping call is free. The first deliverable is fixed-fee.