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Sewers and Money

We will explain the sewerage business and money in Yokohama in an easy-to-understand manner.

Last update date April 2, 2024

Expenses and financial resources required for sewerage business

The financial resources for operating the sewerage business are mainly "sewerage fee", "city tax", "corporate bonds (borrowed money)" and "subsidies from the government".
The sewerage business, such as the operation and construction of facilities, requires more than 240 billion yen per year, including sewerage usage fees and taxes (city taxes), which are paid by everyone, corporate bonds, which are long-term borrowings, and subsidies from the government are used as resources.

Use of sewerage business resources

The operation of the sewerage business can be broadly divided into "maintenance and management of facilities" and "construction of facilities".

The sewerage usage fee and city tax are mainly used for maintenance, and corporate bonds (borrowed money) and subsidies from the government are used for construction.

Maintenance and management of facilities

We perform operation management and cleaning, inspection investigation, repair of sewerage facilities.
The financial resources for this purpose are managed by "sewerage usage fee" and "city tax".

TV camera survey

Operation management of water reclamation centers

Expenses for maintenance include power costs for operating the facility and repair costs for facilities.
The expenses required for sewage treatment are sewerage usage fees, and the expenses required to eliminate rain are covered by city taxes.

Financial resources for maintenance and management

Construction of facilities

We are constructing new sewer pipes and updating aging sewerage facilities for countermeasures against inundation and earthquake countermeasures.
The financial resources for this purpose are financed by “corporate bonds” and “government subsidies”.

Shield machines for construction

Since the constructed sewerage facilities will be used for a long period of time, we borrow long-term borrowings (corporate bonds) based on the idea that all generations who use the facilities will bear the cost fairly.
In addition, construction requires a large amount of money, and the construction of sewerage is important in national policy, so subsidies have been issued by the government.

Financial resources for construction

Principles of Rainwater Public Expenses and Sewage Private Expenses

Taxes (public expenses) are applied to the cost of draining rainwater, and sewerage usage fees (private expenses) are mainly used for cleaning dirty water. This is called the "principles of Rainwater Public Expenditure and Sewage Private Expenses".
Rainwater is a natural phenomenon, and the benefits of eliminating rainwater are wide, so the cost for that is borne by taxes (city tax), and sewage is caused by daily life and production activities. It is the idea of asking the sewer user to bear the burden according to.

Rainwater Public Expenditure

Private expenses

If you replace the sewerage fee with 100 yen

Converted sewerage usage fee to 100 yen

The graph on the right shows the usage by converting the sewerage usage fee to 100 yen (from the fiscal year 2022 settlement value).
More than 50% are repayments of borrowings and interest payments, and the degree of freedom of use of money is low.

About sewerage system usage fee income

Changes in sewerage usage fees

In fiscal 2022, sewerage usage fee income was 53.4 billion yen (excluding tax).
Usage fee income has been declining in recent years, and this trend is expected to continue in the future.
We believe that a decrease in emissions per house due to a decrease in the number of employees per household, etc., is one of the factors that have led to a decrease in usage fees.

※Except for the basic amount, the sewerage fee in Yokohama City, the lower the unit price, the lower the unit price is lower.

For more information about sewerage usage fees, please see the "Sewerage Fees" page.

Status of corporate bonds (borrowed money)

Balance of Corporate Bonds

Yokohama City has built a huge amount of sewerage facilities of about 4 trillion yen so that almost all citizens can use the sewerage system.

As a result, the amount of borrowings was very large, but we are steadily repaying and reducing our balance.

The graph on the right shows the changes in debt balance over the past 30 years.
In fiscal 2001, the peak was about 1.3 trillion yen, but at the end of FY2022, it decreased by more than 680.0 billion yen to 606.1 billion yen at the end of FY2022.

Direction of management of sewerage business

Based on the "Yokohama City Sewerage Business Medium-Term Management Plan 2022", we will aim to balance the implementation of necessary initiatives and sound management while verifying the long-term financial situation. During the planning period, we will maintain the current sewerage usage fee unit price and system by promoting initiatives to secure income and reduce expenditures.

As for the details of the plan, please see page of "Yokohama-shi sewer business medium-term management plan 2022".

Pamphlet: Sewer and Money

For the maintenance and construction of sewerage facilities, sewerage usage fees and taxes received from citizens are used carefully.
This booklet introduces the structure of finance and financial resources that support the sewerage business of Yokohama City and the sewerage business.
(The data in the booklet is based on the financial results for FY2021 (3).)

Sewerage and money story (PDF: 3,461KB) (issued in July 2023)

We distribute booklet in citizen information center (city hall the third floor), sewer river bureau management promotion section (city hall the 24th floor), etc.