Economics
Japan's Power Market Opening Challenges Entrenched Players: Q&A
- More than 250 companies to sell electricity in reformed market
- Liberalization is next step to reform system through 2020
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Japan’s 8.1 trillion yen ($71.6 billion) power market will become fully open to competition on April 1 after being dominated for more than 50 years by 10 regional monopolies. The following is a short question and answer on the shakeup.
Japan is liberalizing its low-voltage electricity market on April 1, allowing roughly 85 million households and small businesses -- representing about 38 percent of the market -- to choose electricity providers for the first time. In the 2000s, the nation reformed retail competition for high-voltage customers, or roughly 62 percent of the entire electricity market.