Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda attended the joint meeting of the Electricity Supply-Demand Review Meeting and the Energy and Environment Council held at the Prime Minister's Office.

Discussion took place on the policy for the revision of the electricity usage reduction goal this summer, future efforts to be made for measures on power supply and demand this summer, and planned power outages as a safety net.

Based on the discussion, the Prime Minister said, "The restart of Units 3 and 4 of Oi Nuclear Power Station was decided at the meeting among four ministers held on June 16, and work towards the restart of Unit 3 is currently under way. However, it is estimated that it should take about three weeks per unit for the restart of Oi Nuclear Power Station. We also cannot deny the possibility that the working process could be delayed. Therefore, I must currently ask the people to work to reduce their electricity usage during the period to ask for electricity saving, that starts from July 2, according to the goals set on May 18.
The effort to reduce electricity usage will be necessary to a certain extent even after the restart of Unit 3, such as reduction by 10% compared to the previous year within the jurisdiction of the Kansai Electric Power Company. However, when stable operation of Units 3 and 4 is confirmed, we will revise the electricity usage reduction goal accordingly.
I regret the inconvenience for consumers, but would like to ask for understanding and cooperation for the saving of electricity. I also ask for utmost efforts by the related Cabinet members to take every measure to ensure the supply of electricity this summer."