In a blow to Tokyo Electric Power Co., the Nuclear Regulation Authority decided on May 17 to maintain its ban on moving nuclear fuel within the utility’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture.
The government on May 16 approved the requests of seven major utilities to raise monthly electricity bills for standard households by 2,078 yen ($15.30) to 5,323 yen starting on June 1.
Electric power companies even in major urban areas are increasingly resorting to a practice known as “output power control,” where power transmission is temporarily halted.
The Fair Trade Commission has ordered three major regional utilities to pay record fines of about 101 billion yen ($757 million) in total for forming cartels that eliminated competition for corporate customers.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and visiting South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol on March 16 agreed on a range of measures to push bilateral relations to a new level.