Japan's Environment Ministry--in an effort to save on electricity usage via air-conditioners, has kicked off its 'Super Cool Biz' fashion campaign.
Staring on June 1, 2011, ministry workers are being allowed to have 'Casual Friday's' every day, dressing in cool summertime fashions so that it can keep it's offices no cooler than 28 Celsius, to help stem possible electrical power shortages after a large chunk of its electricity has been lost due to the nuclear crisis at Fukushima-ken's (Fukushima Prefecture) Dai-ichi (Big One) nuclear plant that was badly damaged after the March 11, 2011 9.0 Magnitude earthquake and tsunami.
Previous Cool Biz campaigns allowed the Energy Ministry workers to work sans (without) a jacket or tie--but the new Super Cool Biz program allows them to don clothing such as: Hawaiian shirts, plain non-logoed tee-shirts and jeans--though the jeans must be clean, unadorned or ripped.
While the sentiment was looked forward to by the Ministry workers, not too many people took advantage of the opportunity that first day, as the temperature in Otemachi, Tokyo (where the office is located) was a rather frigid 13.3 Celsius. It was so cold, many workers wore jackets. (Brrrrr). For reference, in Toronto on June 1, it was 31 Celsius. (Not Brrrrr).
Yoshizawa Yasunori (surname first!), the assistant division chief in charge of promoting countermeasures against chlorofluorocarbon with the Environment Ministry said that while it is still cold: "The need to save electricity when summer comes is inevitable. I hope we can review our lifestyle through these efforts."
Files compiled by Andrew Joseph
Staring on June 1, 2011, ministry workers are being allowed to have 'Casual Friday's' every day, dressing in cool summertime fashions so that it can keep it's offices no cooler than 28 Celsius, to help stem possible electrical power shortages after a large chunk of its electricity has been lost due to the nuclear crisis at Fukushima-ken's (Fukushima Prefecture) Dai-ichi (Big One) nuclear plant that was badly damaged after the March 11, 2011 9.0 Magnitude earthquake and tsunami.
Previous Cool Biz campaigns allowed the Energy Ministry workers to work sans (without) a jacket or tie--but the new Super Cool Biz program allows them to don clothing such as: Hawaiian shirts, plain non-logoed tee-shirts and jeans--though the jeans must be clean, unadorned or ripped.
While the sentiment was looked forward to by the Ministry workers, not too many people took advantage of the opportunity that first day, as the temperature in Otemachi, Tokyo (where the office is located) was a rather frigid 13.3 Celsius. It was so cold, many workers wore jackets. (Brrrrr). For reference, in Toronto on June 1, it was 31 Celsius. (Not Brrrrr).
Yoshizawa Yasunori (surname first!), the assistant division chief in charge of promoting countermeasures against chlorofluorocarbon with the Environment Ministry said that while it is still cold: "The need to save electricity when summer comes is inevitable. I hope we can review our lifestyle through these efforts."
Files compiled by Andrew Joseph
