Photo/Illutration Taro Kono, right, the state minister in charge of consumer affairs, meets on Feb. 13 with Natsuhiko Takimoto, left, president of Chugoku Electric Power Co. (Junichi Miyagawa)

In a rare summons, Taro Kono put the executives of four power companies in the hot seat on Feb. 13 when he questioned them over the significant rate hikes they plan to roll out this spring.

Kono, a Liberal Democratic Party heavyweight and the state minister in charge of consumer affairs, has long been seen as a gadfly by the electricity industry for his staunch opposition to nuclear power.

But while the economy minister has the final say on approving rate increases, the consumer affairs minister is consulted as part of the process.

The sessions were held behind closed doors, but members of the media were allowed in at the start.

“While petroleum and gas prices are rising around the world, we at the Consumer Affairs Agency must also look carefully at whether the utilities are doing everything they can to cut costs before raising their rates,” Kono said at the outset of the grilling. 

Kono had announced at a news conference on Feb. 10 that he would be questioning the executives of the four utilities in the wake of two anti-competition scandals involving electric power companies.

One is over suspected cartel behavior to reduce competition while the other involved unauthorized access of customer lists of rival electric companies.

Kono said incidents like these hurt public trust in the corporate ethics of the power companies.

“I want to confirm what the utilities are doing from the standpoint of consumers,” Kono told reporters.

He met with executives from Tohoku Electric Power Co., Chugoku Electric Power Co., Shikoku Electric Power Co. and Okinawa Electric Power Co., each of which had submitted requests with the economy ministry to hike rates by 30 to 40 percent starting in April.

The executives who met with Kono said their proposed rate hikes have nothing to do with the suspected cartel activities.

They explained fuel costs have skyrocketed in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine a year ago.

“We could not help but make the rate hike request to continue providing a stable supply of electricity as fuel costs rise in an unprecedented manner,” Keisuke Nagai, president of Shikoku Electric Power, told Kono.

The rate increase requests are currently being considered within the economy ministry’s Electricity and Gas Market Surveillance Commission.

But the Consumer Affairs Agency is expected to ask the economy minister to restrain the rate hikes as much as possible.

(This article was written by Hiroki Koizumi and Taro Kotegawa.)

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