Tokyo Gas 03-5722-0111 / Tokyo Gas in Yokohama 045-948-1100
Researched By Cornelia [9 June 1999]
English Website
Japanese Website

Tokyo Gas provides natural gas for the following prefectures: Tokyo, Chiba, Gunma, Ibaraki, Kanagawa, Nagano, Saitama, Tochigi, and Yamanashi. They do not have a specific English help-line, but there are one or two English speakers on duty at all times, so when you call the above number, tell the operator that you want to speak to someone in English: "Eigo ga hanaseru hito ga imasu ka?" and that should get you to the right person.

Japan does not use only one gas standard throughout. This is very important when transferring appliances from one part of Japan to another part of Japan! Other gas companies include Osaka Gas (in Kansai), Toho Gas (in and around Nagoya), Saibu Gas (in Kyushu) and so on.

There are some downloadable safety guides in .pdf format at this link: http://www.tokyo-gas.co.jp/foreign/english/userguide/anzen/yobou/index.html.

There have been some issues over the years with gas safety. Particularly in the winter there are sometimes reports of death caused by carbon monoxide poisoning due to gas heaters being used with inadequate air exchange. This web page shows some ways to prevent such a terrible accident.

Comments:
2 June 1999 -- from Anonymous in Bunkyo-ku
"My last call to Tokyo Gas was on 20 Jan. 1999. Imagine my surprise when the nice lady with excellent English (Noma-san) said that they have a list of my gas appliances on file (This survey must have been done a couple of years ago, the last time I needed a serviceman to come by). I told her that I was fairly certain that the problem was the switch on my heater. I was able to get an appointment with a serviceman between 4-5 pm on the same day. Unfortunately they didn't bring the part with them, because they had to see for themselves what was wrong. Also my heater was 16 years old and the part was likely to be no longer available. It was the switch, and I had to wait until Monday to find out if the part might still be found somewhere. But with newer appliances, particularly those sold by Tokyo Gas, I assume that they would have been able to repair it on the spot. I wasn't charged anything for the serviceman's call since he was unable to repair anything. By Monday I had already replaced the heater with a new second hand one."
(Bunkyo-ku)
Cornelia: Both Tokyo Gas and Tokyo Electric have pretty good service by all accounts. Tokyo Gas also runs a large retail outfit selling gas appliances called "Enesta" (TG ENESTA CO.,LTD.) which sells appliances and also provides service.

Do you know anything that should be added to this page? Please tell us.