Photo/Illutration An entrance of Tokyo University of the Arts in the capital’s Taito Ward on Feb. 15 (Chika Yamamoto)

Desperate for funds to cover their spiraling electricity bills, national universities have sold off properties and shut down facilities that are needed for education and research.

“It is up to each university to work out its own salvation plan” to deal with the price hikes, education minister Keiko Nagaoka said at a news conference.

She added, however, that the ministry “will thoroughly support sustainable and stable education and research activities.”

Earlier this month, Tokyo University of the Arts removed two upright pianos from two practice rooms and sold them.

In a notice sent to music students on Feb. 2, the university cited “budget reductions” and asked those who need to practice piano to reserve a different room.

The university has now sold five pianos for a total of 240,000 yen ($1,800). The university said it can also save 120,000 yen in annual tuning expenses for the five instruments.

The school said the sales of the five pianos should not affect students’ learning opportunities. It still owns about 260 grand pianos and 100 upright pianos, for which it pays 16 million yen a year in tuning expenses.

The university’s electricity bills have skyrocketed since Russia invaded Ukraine a year ago.

For fiscal 2022, which ends in March this year, it will pay an estimated 127 million yen for electricity.

The university now faces the possibility of paying 364 million yen a year for power, almost three times the estimated amount.

The university has also switched off library heaters to conserve energy.

Since last year, Nagoya University has temporarily shut off its Furo supercomputer, which eats huge amounts of electricity, to save on energy costs.

Osaka University has shortened library hours since the end of December.

In the same prefecture, students at Osaka Metropolitan University had freely used two rooms available on its Nakamozu campus. But the university closed the rooms on Feb. 8 to save on costs.

Kyushu University has issued a campuswide request for further cooperation with its energy-saving efforts.

The central government included 9.8 billion yen in the second supplementary budget for fiscal 2022 to support national universities’ research activities and energy-saving efforts.

The government has also decided to spend an additional 5 billion yen to help national universities deal with rising electricity costs.

(This article was written by Hajime Ueno, Chika Yamamoto and Hideki Motoyama.)

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