Utilities
Before moving, notify the local offices of electric
power, gas water service, NTT (telephone), and local
post office. On moving day, service personnel will
arrive and calculate your final bill for on-the-spot
payment.
Electricity
At your new home, you can turn on the electricity by
raising the switch on the main circuit breaker. There
will be a postcard hanging from the breaker, fill it
out and mail it.
Gas
It is best to make advance arrangements for the main
valve to be opened. However, if you call in the morning
of moving day, the valve can be opened the same day.
Someone will need to be home. Also, confirm which
type of gas is supplied before you buy any gas appliances.
Water
Water supply is seldom cut off, but please notify the
local office of the water works when you move to a
new address.
Phone
Your telephone is the most expensive utility to get installed. You must first purchase a phone line (kenri). Phone line does not refer to the actual wires or telephone but to your right to have a phone connection. You can purchase your line from NTT for around 70,000 yen. One way to get around this high one-time expense is to rent your phone line. This will cost you about 3,000 to 5,000 yen per month. However, NTT does not rent phone lines. Once you have a phone line then you will get your phone number. You can expect to pay as much as 100,000 yen to get your phone hooked up.
There are several long distance companies. The largest is KDD. (001) Another is ITJ (0041) Long distance rates from Japan to the rest of the world are very high. One way to beat the the high cost is by using Call Back.
Usefull numbers:
International dialing inquireies - 0056 or 0057
International telegram - 344-5151
Domestic telegram - 115
Directory inquiries - 104
Speaking clock - 117
Tel. repair service - 113
KDD
Service Information 0057
Operator Assisted Calls 0051
NTT
English Information, Tokyo 03-5295-1010
English Information, Yokohama 045-322-1010
Repair Service 113
Shinkansen Calls 107
Telegrams, Domestic 115
Telegrams, Overseas 03-3344-5151
CitySource
Japan Telephone Directory by NTT Software Lab. (Trial Service)
Mail & Public Telephones
Mail 1
Mail 2
For further details and inquiries, contact the following:
Tokyo Electric Power Company 03-3501-8111
Consumer Service Office
Tokyo Gas Company 03-3433-2111
Consumer Service Office
Tokyo Metropolitan Waterworks 03-5320-6327
Public Relations, General Affairs Dept.
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