By the HalfKey team
Utility cut-off notice in your landlord's name: what to do
The notice names the operator, but the meter feeds your apartment. Electricity can stop 20 days after the due date, gas around day 50 from the meter read, and the slip on the notice can be paid by anyone at a konbini. Here is the order to do things in.
On this page
A utility cut-off notice runs on the utility's calendar, not your lease's. It does not matter that the name on it is your operator's. The meter it refers to feeds your apartment, and the supply stops on the date printed, whoever was supposed to pay. So the order is fixed: read the notice, message the operator today, and if the date is close, pay the slip yourself and keep the stub.
Three parties, three calendars. The utility counts days from the meter read. The operator counts from your rent date. You count from the day the postcard lands in the box. Only the first calendar decides when the lights go off.
In a furnished monthly apartment the contract holder is almost never you. The operator (the company that runs the furnished rental) holds the master lease (the long lease the operator signs with the building owner), so the operator's name is on the meter. The utilities you pay come bundled as 光熱費 (kōnetsuhi — the flat utility line) inside your rent. A cut-off notice means the operator did not pay the utility. That is their failure. It is still your dark apartment.
Reading the notice
TEPCO sends a postcard. Its support page lists the three headlines it uses: 電気の供給に関する重要なお知らせです ("an important notice about your electricity supply"), 電気料金お支払いについてのお願い ("a request about paying your electricity bill"), and 契約廃止による送電停止予定日のお知らせ ("notice of the planned power-stop date due to contract cancellation"). The third one is the serious one. It carries a date. TEPCO says the payment deadline itself cannot be extended.
Tokyo Gas calls its notice ガス料金等お支払いのお願い ("request for payment of gas charges") and prints a 支払期日 (shiharai-kijitsu — payment date). Since February 2026, Tokyo Gas sends its stop warning by email, SMS or post, whichever it holds for the contract holder. If the operator registered its own email address, you may never see a warning at all. Tokyo Waterworks sends お支払のお願い ("payment request") about two weeks after a missed due date, then a 給水停止通知 (kyūsui-teishi tsūchi — water-stop notice) once the reminders run out.
Four fields matter on any of them:
- 契約名義 (keiyaku meigi — contract name): the operator, the building owner, or a company you do not recognise.
- ご使用場所 (go-shiyō basho — place of use): the address and room number the meter serves. Match it to your door.
- 支払期限 or 支払期日 (the payment deadline) and, on the TEPCO postcard, 送電停止予定日 (sōden-teishi yoteibi — planned power-stop date).
- 金額 (kingaku — amount).
If the room number is not yours, it is not your problem. Japan Post's rule for misdelivered mail is written into 郵便法 (yūbin-hō — the Postal Act), Article 42: mark it 誤配達 (gohaitatsu — misdelivered) on a sticky note and drop it in any post box. If the room number is yours and the name is a stranger's, the meter is still yours. Treat it as the operator's notice and continue.
Who will the utility talk to?
The contract holder, and mostly nobody else. TEPCO's chat and phone lines confirm contract details only for the contract holder, and they ask for the contract name, the place-of-use address and the phone number on the account. You have the first two from the postcard. You do not have the third. So do not spend the morning on hold with TEPCO. Spend it on the operator.
Message the operator in writing, with a photo of the notice, and ask two things: confirm they have paid, and send you the receipt or the payment date. Give them a deadline earlier than the one on the notice. A same-day reply with a receipt closes the matter. Anything vaguer than that, and you move to the next section.
TEPCO does run an English service. Its English support page gives two toll-free numbers, 0120-995-113 and 0120-995-001, Monday to Saturday 9am to 5pm. The recording is in Japanese, you press a number, and an interpreter joins the call. That line is useful once you are the one paying. It is not useful for asking about someone else's account.
Paying the slip yourself
The barcode does not care who pays. TEPCO's own page says a 振込用紙 (furikomi-yōshi — payment slip) stays valid at the konbini after the deadline has passed. Tokyo Gas says the same about an expired 払込書 (haraikomisho — payment form). Take the slip to any 7-Eleven, FamilyMart or Lawson with cash, hand it over barcode-side up, and keep the stamped stub. The konbini walk-up is the same one you would do for your own bill.
Two things change when the stop date is close. TEPCO says konbini and card payments are checked continuously and need no call, unless you are right before the 送電停止予定日. Then you call with the receipt in hand: 0570-055-335 on weekdays 9am to 5pm, or 03-6375-9797 if the postcard names the older 従量電灯 (jūryō dentō — metered lighting) plan. Tokyo Gas says a konbini or smartphone payment needs no separate application to restart supply. A bank or post-office payment does.
If there is no slip in the envelope, you cannot pay at the counter. TEPCO issues replacement slips and smartphone barcodes only through the account holder's chat, so a missing slip sends you back to the operator. Photograph the notice, send it again, and put the words 送電停止 in the message. It moves things.
How fast each supply actually stops
| Supply | Due date | Stop can happen | Comes back after payment | Who must be there |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electricity (TEPCO) | 30 days after the meter read | 20 days after the due date, after a postcard | Remote switch-on, same day or next day depending on the hour you call | Nobody |
| Gas (Tokyo Gas) | 30 days after the meter read | About 50 days after the meter read, after a notice | A worker opens the valve, about 20 minutes, jobs run in order | You, or a proxy such as the building manager |
| Water (Tokyo Waterworks) | 10 days after the bill is mailed | Only after repeated reminders; no day count is published | The bureau reopens once the full unpaid amount is in; call the number on the stop notice | Ask when you call |
Gas is the one to fear. Electricity comes back through the smart meter, which TEPCO Power Grid built for remote opening and closing. Water is patient. Gas needs a visit: Tokyo Gas requires someone present at the opening because the worker checks the water heater's exhaust and explains the equipment, and reopening jobs are handled in the order they arrive. A gas stop can mean cold showers for days after the operator finally pays.
Late interest is the operator's problem, not yours. TEPCO adds about 0.03% per day, 10% a year, from the day after the due date. Tokyo Gas adds 0.0274% a day but waives it when payment lands within 10 days of the due date. Neither company charges you for a late-paying contract holder. They just stop the supply.
If the power is already off
Check the breaker panel first. A tripped breaker looks like a cut-off from inside the apartment. If every switch is up and the hallway lights next door are on, it is the account.
Then the order is: message the operator, pay any slip you have, and call TEPCO with the stub. TEPCO frames a non-payment stop as 契約廃止 (keiyaku haishi — contract cancellation), so the restart is a re-contract done by the account holder through the web or chat. That is the operator's job. The 03-6375-9797 line answers 24 hours a day, and TEPCO warns that a late call can push the restart to the next day.
If the operator has gone silent for more than a day, you have one more move. TEPCO's English page says you can apply for electricity on the day you want it, and switch-on takes three to four hours. A cancelled contract leaves the meter free for a new one in your name. You become the payer for as long as that contract stands, so tell the operator in writing before you do it, and keep every bill.
Getting the money back
The law is on your side, in two places. 民法 (minpō — the Civil Code) Article 606 makes the lessor responsible for the repairs needed to use the property. Article 611, rewritten in the 2020 revision, reduces the rent by the share of the property you could not use when the cause is not yours. Both are on e-Gov. A day without power is a day without the apartment you paid for.
The landlord side has its own price list. The 日本賃貸住宅管理協会 (Nihon Chintai Jūtaku Kanri Kyōkai — Japan Property Management Association) guideline of October 2024 sets 40% of daily rent for no electricity, 30% for no water and 10% for no gas, after two or three free days. Read it as a reference, not a rule. The guideline calls itself non-binding, and it excludes supply stops by the utility itself, so a stop caused by the operator's unpaid bill goes back to the Civil Code. The percentages are still the industry's own view of what a dark day is worth.
Ask for the money in writing, with the stub attached. The clean version is a refund or a credit on the next invoice, agreed by email. Deducting it yourself is riskier. 相殺 (sōsai — set-off) exists in Civil Code Article 505, but the same article lets a contract restrict it, so check your lease for that word before you pay a reduced amount.
The receipt is the whole case. The stamped stub, the photo of the notice and the dated messages to the operator are what you will show anyone later. Keep them until the deposit comes back.
The day the notice arrives
- Match the room number on the notice to your door. Wrong room: mark it 誤配達 and post it. Right room: continue.
- Photograph both sides, including the date and the amount.
- Message the operator with the photo. Ask for proof of payment by tomorrow.
- Compare the stop date to today. Fewer than five days left, or no reply by tomorrow: pay the slip at a konbini and keep the stub.
- If you paid, tell the operator the same day and say how you want it back.
- If gas is the supply at risk, book the reopening the moment the payment clears. Someone has to be home.
- File the stub, the photo and the messages together. Keep them until you have moved out.