UGH! 28 Degrees C or 82.4 Degrees F

Imagine you are at work. You are wearing your professional work clothes. Now imagine the temperature in your office is  28 degrees C or 82.4 degrees F.  Do the words "refreshing" or "comfortable" come to mind?  I doubt it. But that is the temperature the Japanese government recommends you keep your air conditioner set to.

28 degrees C is NOT comfortable. I walked into the bank early in June....it was hotter inside than outside. The little lady who greets customers was sweating and constantly wiping her face with her handkerchief. All the staff had shiny faces and the customers were trying to fan themselves with their hands! I just about died it was so uncomfortable.

I went to the shopping mall and upstairs to the 2nd floor and basically turned around again and didn't spend any money as I had no desire to sweat.

It is a bit crazy. The idea of course is to conserve energy  (and help with global warming) and while that is especially  important this year for those people in the north who were affected by the disaster, this initiative actually started back in 2005.  It was named the "cool biz campaign" and the idea is to keep the office temperature at 28 degrees and for employees to wear more casual/summery clothing such as  Hawaiian shirts, polo shirts and to stop wearing ties etc.  The campaign is part of the Japanese government's pledge to cut emissions by 6 % per the Kyoto protocol.  The UN's "cool UN" campaign has a much more realistic temperature recommendation of 25 degrees C (77 degrees F).  A Japanese researcher found that for every 1 degree above 25 degrees C workers productivity is cut by 1.9%. 

It shouldn't be surprising to find out that when workers are hot and sweaty they don't get as much done. Last night on the news it was reported that there has been an increase in the number of people going to the hospital complaining of heat stroke, fatigue, no appetite etc.  And it is still June! Right now it is midnight and it is 28.3 degrees C (83 degrees F) and the  humidity is 83%......summer has just started so I'm guessing it is going to be long, hot, sweaty and frankly....dangerous for some people!  I'm just happy that I can control the temperature at work!


Oh and here is a picture I took from my window at work.

The rice is planted!