TOKYO (MNI) – Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Kaoru Yosano said
on Friday that a 15% reduction in electricity use in northeastern Japan
this summer urged by the government will pose no major threat to efforts
to fix quake-hit supply chains and restore industrial production.
“It is hard to Imagine that the 15% cut will have a major impact on
production in Japan,” he told a news conference.
The government has formally decided to ask households and
businesses in the areas served by Tokyo Electric Power Co and Tohoku
Electric Power Co to curb electricity use by 15% from a year earlier.
The March 11 earthquake and tsunami knocked out the cooling systems
for the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant operated by TEPCO and
damaged facilities owned by Tohoku Electric, undermining their power
generation capacity.
Meanwhile, Yosano said consumers have been normalizing their lives
gradually after slashing spending out of respect for the victims of the
March 11 disaster, noting that they have realized overly self-restrained
activities will hurt the economy.
The Economy Watchers’ Survey released on Thursday showed that its
current condition index stood at 28.3 in April, up from 27.7 in March,
when it hit the lowest level since 19.4 in February 2009 at the height
of the global recession.
tokyo@marketnews.com
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