TOKYO (Reuters) – The government is calling for energy conservation as eastern Japan experiences the highest temperatures in at least 147 years.
Consumption should be curbed as much as possible, the government advised in Tokyo on Friday. However, the air conditioning systems, which consume a lot of electricity, should continue to be operated in order to protect themselves from the heat.
For the seventh day in a row, temperatures of more than 35 degrees Celsius were forecast for the Tokyo region. It’s also supposed to be very hot at the weekend. For the western city of Nagoya, meteorologists even expect 40 degrees. Slightly cooler temperatures and possible rain could bring some relief on Monday. The government called on citizens not to wear masks outdoors – a message that is only slowly gaining ground, after all, wearing masks was common here even before the corona pandemic. “As the risk of heat stroke increases, you should remove your masks outdoors when you are far away from others and not speaking,” Deputy Cabinet Secretary Seiji Kihara said at a news conference.
The authorities had repeatedly warned of a possible power shortage in the past few days. The supply is already strained as many nuclear power plants are still shut down after the tsunami and the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011. A number of outdated thermal power plants are being shut down in order to achieve climate targets. The country also faces a potential shortage of fossil fuels, including LNG, due to the conflict in Ukraine and sanctions against Russia.
The power grid in the greater Tokyo area with its 37 million inhabitants was so heavily loaded on Thursday that power outages could have occurred. However, the situation has now eased as measures taken by the authorities to cope with the summer demand peaks have now come into force.
Summer temperatures in Japan are often scorching. In 2021, several events at the Tokyo Olympic Games at the end of July had to be postponed due to the heat. However, temperatures this June were at an all-time high, catching the authorities completely unprepared. “Because of record-breaking temperatures, in June we had electricity demand almost matching summer peaks – before we were able to gather sufficient supply resources,” said a representative of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. “That’s why it got tight.”
(Report by Yuka Obayashi and Elaine Lies, written by Rene Wagner, edited by Christian Rttger – If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at [email protected])