On Monday evening, customers at a Starbucks cafe in Tokyo's Nakano ward sipped their lattes in the glow of a single row of lamps and a handful of small, battery-powered tea lights. Such scenes have become common in Tokyo as people across the Kanto region strive to conserve energy after Friday's devastating Tohoku-Kanto Earthquake shut down nuclear power plants in Fukushima.
The electricity demand in Tokyo, explained Tokyo Vice-Mayor Naoki Inose, exceeds the supply by one-third, and a reduction of 25 percent is necessary to avert sudden, massive blackouts. As a result, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) began implementing temporary rolling power outages in areas of Tokyo and its neighboring prefectures on March 14th.
Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano exhorted the nation to "save electricity in the maximum possible way."