Sony Factory Outlet

More companies adopt 'summer time' hours to save energy

A growing number of companies are introducing "summer time," which has employees starting and ending their work days from 30 minutes to an hour earlier than usual.

The practice of daylight saving time, in which clocks are advanced one hour forward, has been practiced in many Western nations for decades, but has never been officially adopted in Japan.

This year, however, many companies are introducing their own daylight saving time systems without the backing of the central government as part of measures to conserve electricity.

Starting in June, major beverage maker Ito En Ltd. began letting the employees in its Tokyo main office end their workdays at 4:30 p.m. instead of the usual 5:30 p.m.

A male employee and baseball fan said that he likes the earlier hours because he gets home in time to watch the Hanshin Tigers on TV.

"That's one of the advantages of the new summer time," he said.

Morinaga Milk Industry Co. introduced earlier hours on March 28 because of the rolling blackouts implemented by Tokyo Electric Power Co.

"If we stay in the office until late at night, we cannot go home. So we introduced the summer time as a last-ditch measure," said an official of the company's public relations division.

After the introduction, the system spread to other companies as an electricity-saving measure.

A major diaper maker, Unicharm Corp., started summer time in May.

"We suffered damages in our factory in Fukushima Prefecture so electricity was necessary for the immediate recovery of the plant. So we introduced the summer time system from a sense of crisis," said an official of the firm's PR division.

Nissan Motor Co. plans to introduce summer time in its head office and development centers from July through September. To save electricity, the carmaker will move forward the regular working hours by 30 minutes to one hour.

Japan has considered adopting daylight saving time in the past. In 2008, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda called for its introduction as part of measures to prevent global warming. After he resigned as prime minister, however, the plan was forgotten.

The current government, headed by Prime Minister Naoto Kan, is opposed to daylight saving time, and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said it would be too costly to implement nationwide.

According to an Asahi Shimbun survey conducted of top 100 companies from late May to early June, however, 21 firms replied that they introduced or will introduce summer time hours.

PC magazine, the independent guide to IBM-standard personal computing

PC world

Shopping center directory

New York Magazine

Buying retail is stupid!, USA : the national discount guide to buying everything at up to 80% off retail