Corporate Japan strives to beat power crunch

With no sign of the post-Fukushima power-crunch abating, most organisations plan to save more energy and looking for alternatives, including solar energy – Reuters photo

TOKYO: Automatic doors are blocked at offices, subway escalators are disabled and much of the headquarters of Japan's biggest utility sits in semi-darkness - all evidence of how a 2½-year power crunch has forced companies to re-think energy use.

As expensive imported fuel has sent corporate electricity prices surging by more than a third since the Fukushima nuclear disaster, firms have scrimped and employees have grown used to sweaters in the winter and open collars in the summer.