I am drafting this article in a Shibuya cafe at 7 o'clock on a September evening. Already it is dark. Outside, neon blazes from each shop and office, turning the night to a purplish haze. This, for tourists and residents, is the quintessential image of Tokyo. It is an image that aptly describes any city in Japan, from Sapporo to Naha.

London, on a September evening at 7, would still be light. Japan gets dark early, and not only because it is relatively close to the equator. These neon evenings testify to the absence of an innovation embraced by almost every developed, temperate country, and one which Japan might benefit from carrying further: daylight saving time.

When I have questioned Japanese friends about this, they tend to protest that adjusting clocks would be inconvenient. But in an article last year in The Japan Times, Mayumi Negishi traced the real roots of this antipathy to the Occupation, which, between 1948 and 1952, imposed the system on Japan. It was seen as a symbol of foreign rule, and, for half a century, this undermined serious discussion of its practicality. Renewed debate last year in the Diet ended prematurely when Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi called an election to confirm support for his plan to privatize Japan Post.

Yet Japan's anomalous rejection of DST is irresponsible in a time of profligate energy use, diminishing resources and global warming. Worldwide, environmental issues are climbing the political agenda. In Germany, thousands of houses are being built to the passivhaus standard, warmed only by body heat and sunlight. In the United States, California's maverick Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has implemented legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent in 20 years.

Schwarzenegger was able to take popular support for this measure for granted. California is plagued each summer by blackouts, when demand for air conditioning outstrips the electricity supply. Tokyo, so far, has suffered only occasional power failures. But these will become more numerous if demand for energy continues to rise.

The Japanese government has run a campaign, "Cool Biz," encouraging workers to shed jackets and ties in summer. But this amounts to gesture politics considering the energy expended illuminating cities. Even in June, it is dark by 8, when many are still at work in artificially lit offices, while others are on their way to bright izakaya. The sun has risen by four in the morning; daylight is wasted while Japan sleeps. The Japan Productivity Center calculated that moving the clocks forward an hour between April and October would save 40 tons of carbon dioxide emissions daily. Nor need this saving harm the economy. As a byproduct of longer daylight hours, it is estimated that the yearly nominal GDP would rise by 0.2 percent.

There are few compelling counter-arguments. Too light in the evenings for hanabi ? The United States celebrates Independence Day with fireworks, soon after midsummer, in a country stretching much further north than Japan. Too hot in the evenings to be comfortable outside? Perhaps, but children walking home late from juku will be safer. There remains the obstinate counter-argument of custom: those complaints about the inconvenience of changing clocks. This is a change the rest of the developed world performs twice a year without complaint, but DST is likely to remain unpopular in Japan until politicians and environmentalists have put the case with clarity.

Still, there may be a simple way of neutralizing these complaints. European countries put the clocks back in winter because they are relatively far north: permanent DST would mean dark winter mornings, inconvenience for farmers and more deaths on the road. Tokyo, closer to the equator, enjoys longer hours of winter daylight. Even the northern tip of Hokkaido is further south than Paris. 95 percent of Japanese live in latitudes that might benefit from perpetual daylight saving time. I suggest that the Diet consider turning the clocks an hour forward in April. Once that is done they should stay like that forever.

The Japan Times Weekly: Sept. 23, 2006
(C) All rights reserved