ConAir

The Japanese Necktie Industry is in a bad place. As the summer rolls around the heat increases and all us Japan residents get a lot of heat humidity and most important, air conditioning. This year, Japan’s Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has instituted a policy strongly advising Japanese companies to relax their dress codes for the summer, dropping jackets and ties. His idea is that when the people dress lighter they can reduce their air conditioner usage, save money for the company in this time of economic uncertainty as well as high oil prices, and reduce CO² emissions to help the environment.

This idea sounds good on paper except when you introduce to a 6’4� 200 lbs hairy gaijin like myself. Today I went to teach a company, about 10 minutes away from my school on foot, which has put this policy into effect. Today’s weather was about 80 °F / 27 °C, and the air conditioning was set at 79 °F / 25 °C. I figured why not just open the windows, I’d sweat less. Meanwhile the necktie companies are screaming about how this will hurt their sales, I mean who really likes wearing neckties…

In my humble opinion, this lowering of air conditioning is only going to cause additional problems. 30 years ago Japan had no A/C and was fine, but they also didn’t have servers, desktops, fax machines, copy machines and all the other equipment that raises the room temperature and will overheat and die if not conditioned correctly.

But if anything, think of the students. If their teacher is all sweaty and smelly, will they really be getting their money’s worth?

Wisdom of the Day: Colder isn’t always better