Does Japan Need Daylight Saving Time?
It seems that the Japanese government is trying to come up with plans to recover from the huge energy shortage caused by the loss of several nuclear reactors, and one possible solution is daylight saving time:
To deal with such power shortage, currently addressed by rolling blackouts, industry minister Banri Kaieda said the government may consider options such as the introduction of daylight saving time, extension of employees’ summer vacations and an effective raise in household electricity charges as short-term measures.
As for medium-term steps, the government’s taskforce on the electricity problems touched on the idea of building new thermal power plants, apparently keeping in mind growing public concerns over the safety of nuclear power plants after the quake-induced nuclear crisis has caused radiation leaks.
Noting that power-rationing implemented in Tokyo Electric’s service areas has so far contributed to avoiding unpredictable massive blackouts, Kaieda said, ”The problem comes in the summer…when about 10 million kilowatt of supply-demand gap occurs.”
Some of the other ideas don’t sound too bad, but would daylight saving time actually help?
Maybe not. Here is a short MNBC clip of Rachel Maddow interviewing Michael Downing, author of “Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time“:
Downing says there is not much convincing proof that daylight saving time leads to less energy consumption. He says it is a particular popular idea because:
- It has no direct cost to taxpayers.
- It doesn’t ask people to conserve energy or change their habits.
Using the example of the United States, he also argues that by increasing the amount of daylight in the evening, it means people stay out later and go more places by automobile, leading to increased gasoline consumption. Downing loves bright summer evenings, but he doesn’t think daylight saving time is a realistic energy conservation policy.
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