Tokyo businesses and residents have been told to limit their use of electricity or risk plunging the world’s biggest metropolitan sprawl into a blackout on Tuesday evening.
The warning, which affects the capital as well as surrounding areas that are home to about 45mn people, follows a violent earthquake in north-eastern Japan last week that caused several thermal power plants to suspend operations. It also piled pressure on a grid already strained by the 11-year closure of most of the country’s nuclear facilities.
The blackout alert, which was issued by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, is the first of its type since a system was installed in the aftermath of the 2011 Tohoku quake.