BBC NEWS: Japan vetoes suits in summer heat
Once you live in Japan, you get used to a series of government messages advising how o live your life. Not, however, what we're used to in the West. No messages against drinking (lots of big beer companies in Japan), wreckless driving (lots of big car companies in Japan), sexual harassment (only men have positions of power in Japan), or even looking after children (again, not something men do), and certainly nothing at all about smoking (Japan Tobacco is still a virtual monopoly and is now developing anti-cancer treatment -- not that smoking and cancer is linked of course). But what we do get is how to sit on trains, to get to work early, to learn English, and lots of other vital things for the Japanese economy and society. We also get lots of advertising saying air conditioners should never go below 26 degrees C (BBC spun it to say "25", but that's not what they say on the TV ads).
On the TV, you then get the hilarious shots of Koizumi striding out of the government in very unstylish and mismatched hippy clothes, surrounded by at least six secret service officers in full formal dress, followed by similar shots of his cabinet team also in full dress suits. Not so cool at all. But Jonathon Head notes:

However many office workers say they would feel even more uncomfortable without the formality and anonymity of suits.

This, of course, is the biggest problem. I never wear a tie unless I'm being very well paid indeed. But Japan's move, although typically anal and smacking of typically authoritarian control that the Japanese love so much, their hearts are firmly in the right place. Has there been any clearer move by a government anywhere to convince ordinary citizens to reduce energy consumption. The American Empire might be insisting it has the right to burn as many fossil fuels as it likes and there is no environmental problem (Curious G says so, to it must be true), but the rest of the world faces the problem. Before my children are grown, we'll be at war over oil and possibly even water, so Japan's move is really very welcome - although, as usual, rather funny.