Annual 'Cool Biz' campaign kicks off in Japan

Japan on Monday began its annual "Cool Biz" campaign, which encourages workers to dress more casually to help reduce energy use, with government offices allowing polo shirts, Hawaiian-style aloha shirts and similar attire. Cool Biz allows people to work without their usual neckties and jackets in offices, and has taken root both in the public and private sectors since its launch in 2005.

Cool Biz, a campaign to set air conditioners at 28 degrees Celsius, will run until the end of September, a month earlier than last year. But the Environment Ministry is calling on workers to "dress casually at your discretion, even in October, if it is hot." In central Tokyo, where the temperature was 16.9 C at 9 a.m., Environment Ministry officials came to work with casual outfits such as polo shirts and kariyushi, an Okinawan summer shirt.