Tokyo Electric Power Co. started rationing power throughout much of the Kanto plain on Monday to prevent a nuclear power plant crisis in Fukushima Prefecture from causing a complete blackout of the Tokyo metropolitan region and surrounding areas.
The prefectures affected include Tokyo, Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Chiba, Kanagawa, Yamanashi and the eastern half of Shizuoka.
Tepco is dividing the nine prefectures into five groups that will each lose power for about three hours at a time.