Tokyo Electric Power Co. won government approval on Wednesday to raise household electricity rates by an average 8.46 percent from Sept. 1, lower than the initially planned 10.28 percent but still a move that would alleviate the heavy financial burden stemming from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster.
The permission on the rate hike will pave the way for the country's largest utility known as TEPCO to receive a public fund injection of 1 trillion yen Tuesday, meaning it will effectively be placed under state control.
It is the first time since 1980, the time of a global oil crisis, that TEPCO has resorted to such a full-scale rate hike in its service area including Tokyo. A standard household using 290 kilowatt hour per month is likely to see its monthly bill rise to 7,548 yen in September from 7,201 yen in August, according to a TEPCO official.
