Japan's bureaucratic rank-and-file march in dark jackets and ties to their offices every day, sweating their way through the country's sticky, sweltering summers.
Starting today, they'll be sweating a little less. In a nationwide campaign to save energy by cutting down on air conditioning, the government has urged public workers to leave their ties and jackets home for the summer.
That might be an easy order in most countries, but in Japan -- where conformity and tradition are prized -- the effort, dubbed "Cool Biz," has enlisted help from the highest authorities. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi recently showed up in a newspaper advertisement wearing a half-sleeve shirt with no tie, urging his Cabinet to follow suit.
PHOTO: AP
"If the ministers are wearing a tie, their subordinates would feel uneasy about not wearing it," he said a few weeks ago. "So the ministers should not wear a tie."
The Environment Ministry campaign has nothing to do with loosening up stodgy government ministries -- and everything to do with meeting targets under the Kyoto global warming protocol. Tokyo needs to cut so-called greenhouse gas emissions to 6 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.
To help make the goal, government buildings' air conditioners will be set at a toasty 28?C, the maximum allowed by law. Offices usually keep the temperature at around 25?C. Some private companies are already allowing employees to dress casually for summer. But the government endorsement is expected to help make casual styles widely acceptable.
The Energy Conservation Center estimates if all offices in Japan increase summer temperatures to 28?C, it could save 310,000kl of oil in one summer.
To rally support, and to reassure bureaucrats unfamiliar with being laid-back, the ministry has released a manual dressing down -- with hints such as matching the colors of your belt and shoes.
"We try to explain why just untying your necktie won't do. We show how to achieve an acceptable business look without wearing a tie," said Kentaro Doi, the ministry official in charge of the campaign.
The ministry is even planning a "Cool Biz Collection" fashion show on Sunday at the 2005 World Expo in Aichi, with top executives -- including Toyota chairman Hiroshi Okuda -- as models.
The new policy is expected to boost the economy, as the country's 250,000 national bureaucrats retool their monochromatic wardrobes. Economy Minister Heizo Takenaka said the effort could raise consumer spending by at least ?10 billion (US$92.6 million). That rises to ?600 billion if local government and private industry workers are included.
The effort seems to be having some effect. At a major department store, Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi, men's shirt sales were up 17 percent last month from the same month last year, according to men's section salesman Eiji Utsunomiya.
The store features shirts with hidden snaps or extra buttons so the collar stays upright without a tie.
"It was unacceptable 10 years ago. But I think people are ready for new fashion, and society is changing so we are less resistant to change," Utsunomiya said.
However, judging from the past, success is not guaranteed. In 1979, after the second "oil shock," prime minister Masayoshi Ohira introduced a "save energy look," wearing a half-sleeve suit and tie. It was a failure. A 1994 attempt by prime minister Tsutomu Hata also flopped.
A salesman, Katsuyuki Ishii, predicted yet another failure.
"My company has no such plans. I know it is even unpleasant to look at us," he said, gesturing at his jacket and tie. "But it's like a uniform."
ANGER: A video shared online showed residents in a neighborhood confronting the national security minister, attempting to drag her toward floodwaters Argentina’s port city of Bahia Blanca has been “destroyed” after being pummeled by a year’s worth of rain in a matter of hours, killing 13 and driving hundreds from their homes, authorities said on Saturday. Two young girls — reportedly aged four and one — were missing after possibly being swept away by floodwaters in the wake of Friday’s storm. The deluge left hospital rooms underwater, turned neighborhoods into islands and cut electricity to swaths of the city. Argentine Minister of National Security Patricia Bullrich said Bahia Blanca was “destroyed.” The death toll rose to 13 on Saturday, up from 10 on Friday, authorities
Two daughters of an Argentine mountaineer who died on an icy peak 40 years ago have retrieved his backpack from the spot — finding camera film inside that allowed them a glimpse of some of his final experiences. Guillermo Vieiro was 44 when he died in 1985 — as did his climbing partner — while descending Argentina’s Tupungato lava dome, one of the highest peaks in the Americas. Last year, his backpack was spotted on a slope by mountaineer Gabriela Cavallaro, who examined it and contacted Vieiro’s daughters Guadalupe, 40, and Azul, 44. Last month, the three set out with four other guides
Local officials from Russia’s ruling party have caused controversy by presenting mothers of soldiers killed in Ukraine with gifts of meat grinders, an appliance widely used to describe Russia’s brutal tactics on the front line. The United Russia party in the northern Murmansk region posted photographs on social media showing officials smiling as they visited bereaved mothers with gifts of flowers and boxed meat grinders for International Women’s Day on Saturday, which is widely celebrated in Russia. The post included a message thanking the “dear moms” for their “strength of spirit and the love you put into bringing up your sons.” It
DISASTROUS VISIT: The talks in Saudi Arabia come after an altercation at the White House that led to the Ukrainian president leaving without signing a minerals deal Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was due to arrive in Saudi Arabia yesterday, a day ahead of crucial talks between Ukrainian and US officials on ending the war with Russia. Highly anticipated negotiations today on resolving the three-year conflict would see US and Ukrainian officials meet for the first time since Zelenskiy’s disastrous White House visit last month. Zelenskiy yesterday said that he would meet Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the nation’s de facto leader, after which his team “will stay for a meeting on Tuesday with the American team.” At the talks in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah, US
RSS