Japanese turned off neon signs, dimmed their lights and dialled down thermostats on Tuesday after the government issued an urgent call to save energy to avoid blackouts after an earthquake last week caused a serious power shortage.
Up to 3 million households faced the threat of blackouts on Tuesday night, as utility Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) warned of tight supply and surging demand as snow fell across Tokyo and the temperature dropped to 2 degrees Celsius (35.6 Fahrenheit).
But by later in evening, the country appeared likely to avoid blackouts, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) said. Still, authorities were keeping a power-supply warning in place for Wednesday, public broadcaster NHK said, meaning the world's no.3 economy could still face blackouts.
A similar warning for the northeastern area was lifted, NHK said.
A magnitude 7.4 earthquake last week off the northeastern coast - the same region devastated by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011 - temporarily cut power to about 2 million households, including hundreds of thousands in Tokyo.
"At this rate, we are coming closer to a state where we will have to conduct power outages similar to those that took place after the quake," the trade minister, Koichi Hagiuda, said earlier on Tuesday.
The quake hit six thermal plants, knocking them out of operation in areas served by Tepco and Tohoku Electric Power Co, and the damage could leave some of them idle for weeks or even months, Hagiuda said.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno earlier called on residents in eastern Japan affected by the power crisis to do their part, including by lowering thermostats to around 20C (68F) and switching off unnecessary lights.
Numerous users responded to the call.
National broadcaster NHK dimmed its studio lights while electronics retailer Bic Camera turned off about half of the televisions at dozens of its stores.
The 634-metre (693-yard) Tokyo Skytree tower turned off its lights for the whole day for the first time and operators of the city-centre Tokyo Tower lit up only its bottom half.
