Utilities in a Japanese Second Home: Leave Them On, or Shut Them Off?

Every owner of a Japanese second home reaches this question in the first year. You are about to fly home, the house will be empty for months, and leaving the power and water running to an empty building feels wrong.

The instinct is understandable and usually wrong. Here is what each utility actually does when you are not there.

The asymmetry nobody mentions

The three utilities look like three versions of the same decision. They are not.

	Stopping it	Restarting it	Needs you there?
Electricity	Online or by phone	Online or by phone	Usually no
Water	By phone to the municipality	By phone to the municipality	Usually no
Gas	By phone	Appointment with a technician	Yes — somebody must be inside

That bottom row is the whole article. Electricity and water are decisions you can reverse from your sofa on the other side of the world. Gas is a decision that books part of a future holiday.

Electricity: the one to think hardest about

Cutting the electricity saves the monthly base charge. For a small contract on an unoccupied house this is a modest amount — look at your own bill rather than guessing, because it varies by region, provider and the contract size you have.

What it costs you is larger than it looks:

• Freeze protection stops. In cold regions the supply pipe and the water heater are wrapped in electric heaters that switch themselves on when the temperature drops. No power, no protection. This is the single most common cause of a flooded second home.
• Ventilation and dehumidification stop. Japanese summers and the rainy season do the rest. Mould on walls, in wardrobes and through bedding is slow, quiet and expensive.
• Nothing can be checked. No lights on a timer, no camera, no remote thermostat.
• The house reads as abandoned. A building that never shows a light is the one that attracts attention.

The better move for most second homes: keep the supply connected and switch off the circuits you do not need at the distribution board. You keep the protection and lose the consumption.

Water: cheap to keep, and freezing decides it

The water base charge is usually the smallest of the three. The question is not really cost — it is whether the pipes will freeze.

• Warm regions, visiting more than once a year: leave it connected. Somebody running the taps every month or two also keeps the drain traps full, which solves the smell problem at the same time.
• Cold regions, over winter: drain the system (水抜き) regardless of whether you keep the account open. Houses in snow country are built with a drain valve for this. Closing the stopcock is not enough on its own — the water already in the pipes is the water that splits them.
• Empty for more than a year: close the account and drain.

One caution: a drained system left for a long time means dry traps, and dry traps mean drain smell when you return. The two problems pull in opposite directions, which is why a house visited twice a year is much easier to keep in good condition than one visited every three years.

Gas: the expensive one to get wrong

Closing the valve when you leave is correct and costs nothing. Closing the account is a different decision.

To reopen gas, a technician comes to the property, checks for leaks, and commissions the appliances. Somebody has to be in the house. That means:

• Booking ahead — appointments are not always available at short notice, and the days around new year and Golden Week are worse.
• Being there, which in practice means losing a morning of a short trip.
• Or having somebody in Japan who can let the technician in before you land.

If you visit once a year or more, the base charge over twelve months is usually less trouble than the appointment. If you visit rarely, close it — but plan the reopening into your travel dates rather than discovering it on arrival.

Mains gas and LP cylinders differ in detail, but not in the part that matters: both need somebody present.

Internet

Often overlooked and genuinely optional. Cancel it if you visit once a year and are content with mobile data. Keep it if you run a camera, a smart thermostat or a remote-controlled air conditioner — all of which also give you a way to see that the house is fine without flying to it.

Note that re-contracting fixed-line internet in Japan can take weeks and sometimes requires an installation visit, so this is not a same-week decision either.

A simple rule

How often you visit	Electricity	Water	Gas
Several times a year	Keep	Keep	Keep
Once or twice a year	Keep	Keep, drain for winter	Keep if you can
Less than once a year	Keep if cold region, otherwise consider stopping	Close and drain	Close, and book the reopening with your flights
Not sure when you will next visit	Keep	Close and drain	Close

The pattern is that electricity is the last thing to cut, not the first — the opposite of most owners' instinct.

What this looks like in practice

An owner who visits for three weeks each spring is usually best served by keeping all three connected, draining the water over winter if the house is in a cold region, and having somebody run the taps and check the building in between. The total standing cost is modest. The alternative is spending the first three days of a short holiday on appointments.

An owner who bought a house they have not yet started using is in a different position, and closing gas and water while keeping electricity for freeze protection is usually right.

How Japan YES helps

We hold the account relationships, receive the bills, and pay them from funds you send — no Japanese bank account needed. When something has to be opened, read or let in, we are the people in Japan who do it, and we tell you in English what it cost.

If you are deciding what to keep connected, send us the details of the property and we will tell you what we would do. See also the checklist for leaving a Japanese house empty and how the service works for a second home.

Base charges, reconnection procedures and freezing risk vary by provider and region. Treat the figures on your own bill as the authority, not this page.