Published: Less than 50 min ago
How do you best cope with the winter while trying to lower your electricity bills?
Wear a polo shirt, advises Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike.
Koike, who himself often sports polo shirts in different colors, urges the capital’s residents to put on the long-necked sweaters both to keep warm and to reduce energy consumption.
Warming the neck has a thermal effect, she claims to reporters in the Japanese capital.
– This is a tool to get through the grim winter energy climate together, says Koike.
The governor adds that French President Emmanuel Macron – who is also often seen with his neck covered – is in the forefront of polo shirt wearing.
Japan, like many countries around the world, is facing a choked energy flow and increased electricity prices due to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
In August, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida called for a shake-up of the country’s nuclear power industry to tackle rising import prices – a move that is controversial in Japan after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. After the disaster, much of the country’s reactor was shut down for fear of further accidents, and Japan became increasingly dependent on imported fossil fuels.