Screams over "soaring" electricity bills... "I thought it was a surprise" when the bill was 100,000 yen, living with three people on all-electric power.

A woman living in Okayama Prefecture said: 'No, isn't it bad? The electricity bill is 110,000 yen. It's higher than my house loan. The electricity bill will bankrupt me", she posted on social networking sites. Posts lamenting these rising utility bills are now flooding social networking sites.

Asahikawa, Hokkaido, had the coldest temperature of the season on 19 January, with a minimum temperature of minus 17.8°C. 87 other locations in Japan also recorded their lowest temperatures of the season. Heating equipment has no choice but to run at full capacity, but what is worrying is the ever-rising 'utility costs'.

We asked a family living in Yonezawa City with a couple and their second son in an all-electric detached house about their electricity bill this month.

Woman (40s): 'It's 101,822 yen. It was such a shocking amount that I unintentionally turned my phone over and thought it was a lie. I thought it was a surprise."

Last January, the bill was 57,497 yen; the price has nearly doubled in a year.

The cold winter weather is particularly hard on the bodies of the elderly. A woman (in her 70s) lives alone in Kawaguchi City, Saitama Prefecture, receiving a pension.

Woman (70s): 'Nearly 27,000 yen. I was surprised. It's about 10,000 yen different from last year."

The strongest cold wave of the season is coming over the next week. How should we spend the record cold weather while saving electricity? I'm racking my brains.