TOKYO, May 18 (Reuters) – Japan urged businesses and consumers in the western part of the country to cut power use by 15 percent or more this summer to cope with shortages after all nuclear reactors shut down in the wake of the Fukushima crisis.

The government also said on Friday that it aimed to avoid rolling blackouts in the region but would need to be prepared just in case, stopping short of the mandatory limits imposed last year in eastern Japan.

Concern is simmering that the potential power shortages - the extent of which is a matter of heated debate – could undermine a recovery in the world’s third-biggest economy and hasten manufacturers’ moves to shift factories overseas to avoid high production costs and an uncertain electricity supply.

Japan’s utilities have been struggling to secure stable power supplies because of widespread anti-nuclear sentiment after last year’s massive earthquake and tsunami wrecked the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, triggering meltdowns that caused widespread contamination and forced mass evacuations.

Kansai Electric Power, based in Osaka, western Japan, has projected a 14.9 percent shortfall in August, the worst among the nine utilities that have nuclear plants.

Critics, however, have questioned Kansai Electric’s forecasts, suspecting it is exaggerating potential shortages to strengthen the argument for restarting offline reactors. Many big companies have said they can manage with power saving steps.

The government is currently revamping an energy mix programme that had called for boosting nuclear power above 50 percent of electricity supply from about 30 percent before the crisis, with options ranging from zero to 35 percent by 2030.

TOKYO, May 14 (Reuters) – The assembly in a western Japanese town that hosts a nuclear plant agreed on Monday it was necessary to restart two off-line reactors, its chairman said, the first such nod since all the country’s stations were halted after the Fukushima crisis.

With power shortages looming in the region when demand peaks this summer, the central government has been trying to win approval from towns and prefectures that host reactors. All 50 reactors are off-line since the last one shut down for maintenance on May 5.

The government is set to urge businesses and consumers in Kansai Electric Power Co’s service area in western Japan to make voluntary power cuts of 15 percent this summer to cope with shortages, media reported.

The Nikkei business daily, however, said that the government would also consider mandatory power cuts and rolling blackouts if necessary.

Mandatory r estrictions were imposed in some regions last year after the Fukushima crisis, the worst since Chernobyl in 1986, with three reactors suffering meltdowns after the plant was hit by a huge earthquake and tsunami.

The central government last month said reactors No. 3 and No. 4 at Kansai Electric Power Co’s plant in Ohi, Fukui prefecture, 360 km (225 miles) west of Tokyo, were safe to restart.

Officials must still persuade a wary public – including residents of regions close enough to be at risk from a nuclear accident but too distant to reap economic rewards – that a resumption is safe. Delays in setting up a new nuclear regulatory agency due to disputes in parliament have further spooked voters.

TOKYO, May 10 (Reuters) – Olympus Corp reported on Thursday a key measure of capital cushion that was way below levels considered healthy, keeping alive the possibility that the scandal-tainted Japanese camera and endoscope maker may seek to raise funds.

The company, valued at around $3.9 billion, is now under new management, led by former engineer Hiroyuki Sasa, after shareholders approved a new board in April to restore Olympus’ tarnished reputation following last year’s $1.7 billion accounting scandal.

Sasa indicated in April that all options to boost capital are under consideration, including equity alliances, third-party share allocations and using its cash flow to bring it back to shape.

Olympus’ shareholders’ equity ticked up to 4.6 percent of its total assets as of end-March from 4.4 percent as of December. That was still below the 20 percent level which is widely regarded as indicative of financial stability for a company.

The firm did not release a forecast for the year to March 2013, as it is in the process of compiling a business strategy plan that may be released as early as this month.

RESULTS

For the year to end-March, operating profit fell 7.5 percent to 35.5 billion yen ($446.26 million), just under the consensus estimate of 36.8 billion yen in a survey of four analysts by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Tokyo Electric Power Co (9501.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Japan’s biggest utility and the owner of the devastated Fukushima nuclear plant, will be taken over by the government after the country’s trade minister on Wednesday approved a $12.5 billion capital injection.

The takeover, the details of which have widely reported in recent months, will avert the collapse of Tepco, the supplier of power to almost 45 million people in and around Tokyo.

The injection of 1 trillion yen ($12.5 billion) into Tepco brings the total government support for the company to at least 3.5 trillion yen since the meltdown at Fukushima in March last year. The eventual cost of the nuclear disaster, including compensation and clean-up costs, has been estimated at more than $100 billion.

“Without the state funds, (Tepco) cannot provide a stable supply of electricity and pay for compensation and decommissioning costs,” Trade and Industry Minister Yukio Edano said after approving a turnaround plan from the utility that paves the way for an effective takeover.

Tepco lodged a formal request for government support last month after months of dragging its feet for months as it has sought to avoid losing control.

The government will have more than half of Tepco’s voting shares, according to the plan approved by Edano. It will also take convertible stock that, when converted, will increase the government’s control to more than two-thirds.

Tepco Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata will be replaced by an official in the government’s bailout body, and a new president was announced this week, the second since the disaster.

TOKYO, May 9 (Reuters) – Japanese Trade Minister Yukio Edano approved on Wednesday a business turnaround plan for Tokyo Electric Power Co, the owner of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, paving the way for the utility to be nationalised in return for a 1 trillion yen ($12.5 billion) bailout.

A government takeover will avert the collapse of Tepco, which supplies power to almost 45 million people in and around Tokyo, and allows the state to push though reforms at a company that downplayed the risks of natural disasters at its nuclear stations and covered up safety lapses.

Tepco is saddled with trillions of yen (tens of billions of dollars) in compensation and clean-up costs after three reactors melted down at its Fukushima Daiichi plant north of Tokyo following a massive earthquake and tsunami in March last year.

The disaster spread radiation over a wide area and forced tens of thousands from their homes, as well as damaging farming, forestry and fishing businesses.

The government will have more than half of Tepco’s voting shares, according to the plan approved by Edano. It will also take convertible stock that, when converted, will increase the government’s control to more than two-thirds. ($1 = 79.7750 Japanese yen)

(Reporting by Yoko Kubota; Writing by Aaron Sheldrick; Editing by Chris Gallagher)

TOKYO, April 23 (Reuters) – Kansai Electric Power Co, the Japanese utility most reliant on nuclear energy, might face a power shortage of about 20 percent in July unless it can restart reactors taken offline after the Fukushima crisis amid safety concerns, the company warned on Monday.

Kansai Electric’s expected deficit was the highest among four Japanese nuclear plant operators that forecast shortfalls for the summer, when demand peaks.

Japan’s power companies have been struggling to secure stable power supplies because of widespread anti-nuclear sentiment after last year’s massive earthquake and tsunami devastated the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, causing meltdowns, spewing radiation and forcing mass evacuations.

Kansai Electric said it might have a power shortage of 19.3 percent in July unless it can use reactors it has not been able to restart after maintenance.

The forecast shortfalls assume power savings measures and temperatures similar to those in the record summer of 2010. Kansai Electric also said the August gap may be 16.3 percent.

Industry minister Yukio Edano and other officials have been trying to win the support of local communities to reactivate two idled reactors at Kansai Electric’s Ohi nuclear power plant in Fukui prefecture in western Japan.

The two Ohi reactors are the first to be considered for reactivation by the central government, but the government faces an uphill battle in the face of public concern.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Shareholders of Olympus Corp (7733.T: Quote, Profile, Research) approved a new board on Friday, hoping for a fresh start at the camera and medical device maker that hid $1.7 billion of investment losses in Japan’s biggest corporate scandal in decades.

At a sometimes rowdy extraordinary meeting in a Tokyo hotel, local institutional investors and Olympus’ lenders and suppliers voted for a new management slate and approved five years’ worth of restated company accounts.

The firm’s British ex-CEO, whose dismissal six months ago blew the lid off the accounting scandal, said he may seek to have the vote annulled as Olympus executives refused to explain why he had been sacked for “gross misconduct”. Woodford has begun legal action against his former employer in Britain.

While Olympus will hope the vote draws a line under a scandal that has wiped more than $4 billion off its market value, Woodford and foreign investors, who own 25-30 percent of the company, have sought a change in a deep-rooted culture of cross-shareholdings and cosy ties between banks and boardrooms.

Olympus’ new president will be 30-year company veteran Hiroyuki Sasa, and new chairman is Yasuyuki Kimoto, a 63-year-old former executive from the Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG) (8316.T: Quote, Profile, Research), owner of a 3.4 percent stake and the company’s main lender with $2.8 billion in outstanding loans and bonds.

Big lenders such as SMFG and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) (8306.T: Quote, Profile, Research) are often key investors in Japanese companies, giving them influence in board decisions – close ties that were welcomed by shareholders arriving for Friday’s meeting.

“The banks are there … they will help in terms of capital,” Eiichi Suzuki, 60, told Reuters. “The company already has first-class technology, so now it’s a matter of management.”

TOKYO (Reuters) – Six months after the biggest scandal in corporate Japan for decades, shareholders of Olympus Corp (7733.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) were set on Friday to vote in a new board that will cement ties with its bankers but raise questions among foreign investors over whether any lessons have been learnt.

At an extraordinary meeting, which some hope will draw a line under the scandal, Japanese institutions and Olympus’ lenders, suppliers and customers were expected to approve a raft of restated financial accounts and new management put forward by the current, discredited board, all 11 of whom are standing down.

The meeting follows six turbulent months after Michael Woodford, a Briton and then Olympus CEO, queried staggeringly high advisory fees paid in past acquisitions, triggering a probe that uncovered a $1.7 billion accounting fraud stretching back over more than a decade.

Woodford, who has said he feared for his life during the early days of the scandal and has since rushed to print a book “Terminated” about the affair, arrived ahead of the meeting by taxi in a feisty mood.

“Today is the day the new Olympus is supposed to start. It’s a mockery. It’s why the world looks on and continues to think this world works in a completely different way, it’s Alice in Wonderland,” he told reporters outside the hotel where Olympus hired a large function room.

Foreign investors, who own 25-30 percent of Olympus, a camera maker and the world’s biggest manufacturer of endoscopes used for internal medical examinations, had hoped the scandal would shake up a deep-rooted culture of cozy ties between banks and boardrooms.

Big lenders such as Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG) (8316.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) (8306.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) are often key investors in Japanese companies, with major stock and debt holdings – putting them in a powerful position to influence board decisions. SMFG holds a 3.4 percent stake in Olympus, as well as $2.8 billion in outstanding loans and bonds.

TOKYO, April 19 (Reuters) – The months-long hunt for the next chairman of Tokyo Electric Power Co ended on Thursday after Kazuhiko Shimokobe, a lawyer with expertise in turning around businesses and a member of the bailout body for the firm, accepted an offer to run the operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.

The decision paves the way for Tokyo Electric (Tepco) and the government-backed bailout body to submit this month a delayed business turnaround plan, which will outline how the utility aims to revive its business in return for one of Japan’s biggest public bailouts outside the banking sector.

“I took a deep breath, and I told the prime minister that I have taken his offer seriously and will do my best, and that I will accept his request to become the chairman,” Shimokobe told reporters after the offer from Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and Trade Minister Yukio Edano.

Last year’s tsunami-triggered Fukushima nuclear disaster has left Tepco with huge compensation and clean-up costs, a mounting bill for fossil fuels to replace lost nuclear capacity, and a massive burden of decommissioning the devastated reactors.

Several names of business executives were floated to take over the chairmanship to reform the once-powerful utility, but the government had difficulty finding someone from the outside willing to take on the huge task of restoring the firm’s profitability.

Some in the business community did not want to take the job unless they could see a clearer direction on factors essential for making Tepco profitable, such as the future of Japan’s energy policy, reactor restarts and electricity rate hikes, a source close to the bailout body said.

TURNAROUND PLAN

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan will within weeks have no nuclear power for the first time in more than 40 years, after the trade minister said two reactors idled after the Fukushima disaster would not be back online before the last one currently operating is shut down.

Trade Minister Yukio Edano signaled it would take at least several weeks before the government, keen to avoid a power crunch, can give a final go-ahead to restarts, meaning Japan is set on May 6 to mark its first nuclear power-free day since 1970.

“If we thoroughly go through the procedure, it would be (on or) after May 6 even if we could restart them,” Edano told a news conference, adding that whether they can actually be brought back online is still up to ongoing discussions.

The crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, where a huge earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 triggered radiation leaks, has hammered public faith in nuclear power and prevented the restart of reactors shut down for regular maintenance checks, with all but one of 54 reactors now offline.

Nuclear power accounted for about 30 percent of Japan’s electricity demand before the Fukushima crisis.

In discussing restarts of the No.3 and No.4 reactors at Kansai Electric’s Ohi nuclear power plant, in western Japan, the first to clear the government’s technical review on resilience against a severe event, Tokyo has said it wants local backing even though it is not legally required.

The hosts of the Ohi plant – the governor of Fukui prefecture and mayor of Ohi town, some 360 km (225 miles) southwest of Tokyo – told Edano on Saturday that some conditions should be met before they can make a decision.