The Japanese government yesterday called on homes and businesses to cut their energy use by as much as 15 percent amid fears that nuclear plant shutdowns would spark power shortages and blackouts.
With the coming of summer, Japan’s utilities are warning of a shortfall. Kansai Electric, which serves the commercial hubs of Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe, has warned it will be 15 percent short, with utilities in other areas expected to redirect any saved power to energy-starved regions, the government said.
Power providers in the northern island of Hokkaido and southern Kyushu have also warned they may not be able to meet demand, with customers in those regions being asked to cut energy use between 7 and 10 percent.
Photo: Reuters
A power-saving order was issued last year in the wake of Japan’s nuclear crisis sparked by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
However, yesterday’s call was not mandatory because it may put “too much of a burden on business activity,” Japanese Economy Minister Motohisa Furukawa told a press briefing.
The cuts last year, aimed at large energy users, sparked complaints from the business sector and fears it may prompt manufacturers to move production overseas.
Japan’s power-saving campaign will run from July through September, as Kansai and some other utilities prepare for scheduled blackouts.
The resource-poor country used to draw about one-third of its electricity from atomic power, but last year’s meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant has generated anti-nuclear sentiment among the public
All of Japan’s 50 commercial reactors have now been switched off, and when — or if — they will be restarted remains uncertain.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said on Thursday he would soon make a final decision on restarting reactors at Oi in Fukui Prefecture.
Fukushima operator Tokyo Electric Power Co, which supplies Tokyo and surrounding areas, has said it expects to be able to meet demand this summer thanks to continuing power saving by businesses and households.
The cost of utilities has soared as companies turned to expensive alternatives to fill the gap left by the shutting down of reactors.
In months, Lo Yuet-ping would bid farewell to a centuries-old village he has called home in Hong Kong for more than seven decades. The Cha Kwo Ling village in east Kowloon is filled with small houses built from metal sheets and stones, as well as old granite buildings, contrasting sharply with the high-rise structures that dominate much of the Asian financial hub. Lo, 72, has spent his entire life here and is among an estimated 860 households required to move under a government redevelopment plan. He said he would miss the rich history, unique culture and warm interpersonal kindness that defined life in
AERIAL INCURSIONS: The incidents are a reminder that Russia’s aggressive actions go beyond Ukraine’s borders, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said Two NATO members on Sunday said that Russian drones violated their airspace, as one reportedly flew into Romania during nighttime attacks on neighboring Ukraine, while another crashed in eastern Latvia the previous day. A drone entered Romanian territory early on Sunday as Moscow struck “civilian targets and port infrastructure” across the Danube in Ukraine, the Romanian Ministry of National Defense said. It added that Bucharest had deployed F-16 warplanes to monitor its airspace and issued text alerts to residents of two eastern regions. It also said investigations were underway of a potential “impact zone” in an uninhabited area along the Romanian-Ukrainian border. There
The governor of Ohio is to send law enforcement and millions of dollars in healthcare resources to the city of Springfield as it faces a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday said that he does not oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which about 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help affected communities. On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending
Three sisters from Ohio who inherited a dime kept in a bank vault for more than 40 years knew it had some value, but they had no idea just how much until just a few years ago. The extraordinarily rare coin, struck by the US Mint in San Francisco in 1975, could bring more than US$500,000, said Ian Russell, president of GreatCollections, which specializes in currency and is handling an online auction that ends next month. What makes the dime depicting former US president Franklin D. Roosevelt so valuable is a missing “S” mint mark for San Francisco, one of just two
RSS