Japan's auto industry switched gears to power-saving work shifts June 30, potentially affecting more than 800,000 workers in the summer months.
Japan's auto industry switched gears to power-saving work shifts June 30, potentially affecting more than 800,000 workers in the summer months.
Thirteen member companies of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association will take Thursdays and Fridays off and work Saturdays and Sundays until the end of September.
Many of the roughly 440 members of the Japan Auto Parts Industries Association and lower-tier subcontractors are expected to follow suit.
Nissan Motor Co., Honda Motor Co. and Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. stopped assembly lines June 30, and Toyota Motor Corp. and other companies will join July 1.
"We want, by all means possible, to avoid rolling blackouts," said Toshiyuki Shiga, chairman of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association. "We can contribute to society by reducing electricity consumption."
A government order to reduce electricity consumption this summer takes effect July 1 in regions served by Tokyo Electric Power Co. and Tohoku Electric Power Co.
The government is trying to avoid unplanned outages following the loss of power generating capacity caused by the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant and the Great East Japan Earthquake.
Electricity consumption is relatively low on Saturdays and Sundays, when many companies are closed.
Automakers and parts suppliers will shift their days off across the nation so that work schedules will not differ by region.
In other industries, NTT DoCoMo Inc. will take Mondays and Tuesdays off and work Saturdays and Sundays in the region served by TEPCO. At Hitachi Ltd., divisions will take weekdays off in turn.
On June 29, the temperature topped 35 degrees for the first time this summer in central Tokyo.
Electricity use peaked at 45.7 gigawatts in the region served by TEPCO, the largest since the March 11 disaster. It accounted for 93 percent of the company's power generating capacity.
TEPCO plans to increase capacity to 56.2 gigawatts by the end of August, but this will still be below the peak demand of about 60 gigawatts recorded during the unusually hot summer last year.
(This article was written by Yukio Hashimoto and Kazumasa Takenaka.)