The Diet on Wednesday enacted a law that will separate electricity generation from transmission in April 2020, as the final step of a drastic, three-stage shake-up of the nation's power sector.
The first stage saw the creation in April of an independent body for coordinating cross-regional electricity supply, while the second entails the full opening up next year of the retail electricity market after six decades of domination by regional monopolies.
The Diet also enacted a law that will enable full liberalization of the city gas retail market around 2017.