Mayor Nobuto Hosaka had more than saving taxpayers' money on his mind when he recently invited bids from rivals of giant utility Tokyo Electric Power Co to supply power to his ward in Japan's capital.
Hosaka, like other advocates of reform, hopes altered public sentiment after the nation suffered the world's worst nuclear crisis in a 25 years will spur reforms of an electricity oligopoly dominated for decades by regional utility fiefdoms.
"Doing this will reduce our electricity costs," said Hosaka, a former lawmaker from a tiny left-leaning party who now runs a area of Tokyo that is home to some 800,000 people.
"But the reason this attracted so much attention was that until now, the voices of ordinary users -- the people, residents of the ward, businesses -- have not been heard," he told Reuters.
(Reuters)
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