From: lessgovt@gmail.com   
      
   Where Did All the Dark-Suited Japanese Businessmen Go?   
   By Ben Dooley and Hisako Ueno, Sept. 24, 2023, NY Times   
   Cool Biz is one of a number of simple, cost-effective energy savings   
   initiatives in Japan, a resource-poor country that relies on fuel imports for   
   nearly 90% of its energy needs. The measures have helped keep Japan’s per   
   capita energy consumption to    
   roughly half that of the United States, according to statistics from the   
   Energy Institute, based in London.   
      
   Unlike Japanese workers, Americans have been hostile to the idea of thermal   
   discomfort. During the oil shock of the 1970s, President Jimmy Carter became a   
   national punching bag for daring to ask people to turn down the thermostat and   
   put on an extra    
   layer. In the summer, many American offices are still kept so cold that   
   workers resort to space heaters and sweaters.   
      
   In Japan, Cool Biz became especially popular with women, who tended to wear   
   lighter clothes and often complained about the cold temperatures needed to   
   make business suits comfortable for their male colleagues. Women are still   
   vastly underrepresented in    
   decision-making roles in Japanese offices.   
      
   Today, more than 86% of workplaces participate in the Cool Biz program,   
   according to an Environment Ministry survey. The program’s success was   
   achieved without any rule-making or financial incentives, said Yusuke Inoue,   
   the director of the ministry’s    
   zero-carbon lifestyle promotion office.   
      
   Instead, the government encouraged politicians and business leaders to strip   
   off their jackets and ties, modeling behavior that quickly became ubiquitous.   
   As people turned to lighter clothes, they no longer wanted the thermostat set   
   so low, Mr. Inoue    
   said.   
      
   Tatsuya Murase, 29, who works for a shipping company, said clients had come to   
   expect less sartorial stuffiness.   
      
   â€œNowadays when I visit my clients, all seem to be very flexible and generous   
   about the no-jacket style,â€� said Mr. Murase, who was wearing a   
   blue-and-white-checked button-down shirt as he saw off two colleagues near   
   Tokyo Station on Wednesday.   
      
   Keita Janaha, 34, the deputy branch manager of a local bank, said that while   
   some of his male colleagues found the office to be too warm, it was acceptable   
   to customers walking in from the sauna-like conditions outside.   
      
   Cool Biz traces its roots to the 1970s, when Japanese were heeding some of the   
   same advice that Americans shunned. Even so, the appearance of Prime Minister   
   Masayoshi Ohira in a short-sleeved suit jacket — the “energy-saving   
   look,â€� as newspapers    
   called it — was considered too unsightly to abide.   
      
   Yuriko Koike, currently governor of Tokyo, introduced Cool Biz to government   
   offices in 2005 during her time as environment minister. The initiative   
   coincided with commitments Japan had made under the Kyoto Protocol, the 1997   
   international agreement to    
   reduce greenhouse gasses.   
      
   Learning from Mr. Ohira’s safari suit debacle, the government engaged in a   
   full-court press to convince office workers that it was OK to abandon their   
   familiar coat and tie, even when meeting with clients.   
      
   The program’s name was chosen from among 3,200 suggestions. Appropriately   
   suave looks were modeled by the colorful prime minister at the time, Junichiro   
   Koizumi. Officials even persuaded Kenshi Hirokane, who wrote a popular comic   
   book about salarymen,    
   to put his characters in short sleeves.   
      
   While the initiative led to complaints from necktie manufacturers, which said   
   business had fallen, it was a boon for retailers like Uniqlo, with its line of   
   inexpensive, casual clothing made from lightweight, sweat-wicking fabrics. Its   
   polos have become    
   the de facto summer uniform for many office workers.   
      
   The program has been so successful that it has led to a broader    
   €œcasualizationâ€� of summer style in Japan, said W. David Marx, the author of   
   a cultural history of Japanese men’s wear, “Ametora: How Japan Saved   
   American Style.â€�   
      
   â€œAs much as it’s an environmental-saving technique, also on a personal   
   level, I think, everybody realizes that it’s too hot to wear suits,â€� he   
   said.   
      
   Cool Biz’s wintertime counterpart, Warm Biz, introduced at the same time and   
   encouraging workplaces to keep thermostats low, has been less successful. Even   
   its cartoon mascot — an adorable ninja — has had a hard time persuading   
   office employees to    
   bundle up in scarves and blankets and shiver at their desks.   
      
   As Cool Biz has thrived, it has also evolved. In 2011, after the nuclear   
   disaster at Fukushima prompted Japan to shut down reactors nationwide, the   
   country loosened dress standards once more and called on its citizens to   
   reduce air-conditioner use even    
   further in an effort to avoid rolling blackouts.   
      
   So-called Super Cool Biz helped save the electric grid, but may not have been   
   great for productivity, according to research that found that workers became   
   less productive with every additional degree above 25 Celsius, or 77   
   Fahrenheit. Even more worrying,   
    one study linked the reduction in home cooling to a rise in mortality among   
   older people from heatstroke.   
      
   Last year, with Japanese summers getting longer and hotter, the Environment   
   Ministry did away with the official campaign period, encouraging workplaces to   
   naturally transition from Cool Biz to Warm Biz as temperatures demand. Still,   
   most office workers    
   don their casual attire in May and don’t switch back to more formal wear   
   until the end of September. Some municipalities have said they will continue   
   Cool Biz into October.   
      
   Not everyone has adjusted well to the change, said Yoshiyuki Morii, a fashion   
   consultant who helps companies and their employees navigate the country’s   
   shifting dress norms.   
      
   In a nation where uniforms were once common even in desk jobs, many people are   
   unsure what constitutes appropriate attire in the Cool Biz era, he said.   
   It’s a problem that can have serious implications: In 2019, business-suited   
   South Korean trade    
   officials accused their short-sleeved Japanese counterparts of disrespect.   
      
   Other countries have tried programs similar to Cool Biz with varying degrees   
   of success. In Spain, the public proved less willing to put up with the heat,   
   said Daniel Sánchez García, a professor at the University Carlos III in   
   Madrid who studies    
   thermal comfort.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)