After shooting down a proposal to adopt daylight-saving time, Tokyo decided to start Cool Biz May 1 and extend it until Oct. 31 to save energy. Cool Biz is a campaign introduced in 2005 that encouraged government and office workers to wear casual clothes rather than suits and ties during the summer months to reduce usage of air conditioning. Cool Biz typically runs from June through September, but it has been lengthened due to power shortages caused by the ongoing crisis at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.
Tokyo recently proposed reintroducing daylight-saving time, which was used in Japan briefly after the war. The proposal was shot down, with sources stating it would cost too much money to reset clocks and it would cause social confusion. As far as I recall, I’ve never spent as much as one cent on setting a clock. In fact, daylight-saving time saves money and energy by shifting daylight one hour earlier during the summer months, which allows people to utilize one hour of cooler morning temperatures and encourages them to stay outdoors later, saving energy on cooling and lighting. I think the actual reason the proposal was shot down is because Japanese salarymen are often compelled to stay at work until after sundown. If Japan adopted daylight-saving time, Japanese office workers would be chained to their desks until 10 p.m.
Extending Cool Biz is one way to save energy in a country that refuses to adopt daylight-saving time. But even as the government lengthened the Cool Biz period by two months, officials, including Prime Minister Naoto Kan, showed up to the Diet in their usual suits and ties.
A few months ago, I wrote about the early stages of the conflict in Ukraine through the lens of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. While it appears likely that the war will carry on into the foreseeable future, enough time has passed for us to make an honest assessment of each side’s relative […]
The Ukrainian Army has made dramatic strides in the last few weeks. Ukraine’s tactical commanders have outfoxed their Russian counterparts, and by issuing a feint towards the south the UA has been able to earn substantial gains in the north of their country. The impact of these efforts have been compounded by the steady stream […]
In mid-May the Irish political party, Sinn Féin, won the plurality of seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly. Many American readers might not fully understand the significance of Sinn Féin’s political victory- but rest assured that subjects of the United Kingdom and a wide range of political movements the world over have heard the message […]
The first wave of the Russian offensive in Ukraine has fallen short of Russian autocrat Vladmir Putin’s ambitions. Most analysts deduced that Putin had hoped to achieve a decapitation strike of the Ukrainian government- taking Kiev and replacing Ukrainian President Vladimir Zolinski with a pro-Kremlin voice. Kiev has been threatened repeatedly through the course of […]
On the weekend of March 26th, the notorious MS-13 gang went on a massive killing spree in El Salvador which left more than 70 people dead by Sunday. Even for a country where powerful gangs hold massive sway, this recent tragedy stands out considering that it was the bloodiest day on record since the civil […]
