Governor Koike Attends a General Meeting of the Group of Heads of Municipal Governments to Promote Burying Power Lines Underground

On June 5, Governor Koike attended a general meeting of the group of municipal governments’ heads to promote replacing utility poles with underground power cables.

The regular meeting for FY2025 was held at the 1st Members’ Office Building of the House of Representatives in Chiyoda City, Tokyo. The governor has served as an advisor to the group since FY2022.

“With the awareness that burying power poles underground forms the foundation of a town building, I, together with you, have to move ahead in an accelerated manner with such tasks as how to reduce cost and advance related work efficiently amid a labor shortage,” the governor said.

She noted that in recent years, more than 1,000 households in the Greater Tokyo Area have been affected by power outages, mostly because of the breaking of wires with collapsing trees. She then emphasized that laying power lines underground will also help prevent such power outages.

“The other day, I went to a country in Asia and found some power cables tangled up with a whorled shape along a major thoroughfare,” she pointed out.

“I believe we can extend such a support to countries in Asia and elsewhere in the world as replacing power poles with underground cable lines in an accelerated manner, with the use of Japan’s technology. By speeding up further our efforts of burying power poles underground, we will move forward with securing roads which everyone can use safely,” the governor stated.