Japanese were urged Tuesday to conserve energy as the government warned of potential blackouts in the Tokyo region due to a shortfall in power generation after several coal-fired plants temporarily stopped generating electricity following an earthquake last week.
The rare alert Tuesday came as people were using more heat than usual due to snow and unusually cold weather for the early spring.
The magnitude-7.4 earthquake off the coast of Fukushima on March 16 killed four people and injured more than 230 others.
