Is not wearing a tie part of the Kyoto Protocol?
06/06/2005



      In the early summer of 1871, Tomomi Iwakura and other top officials of 
the Meiji government-then in its fourth year-engaged in heated debate over 
the nation's official dress code. Purists insisted on maintaining 
traditional kimono, arguing it was silly to ape the West even on how to 
dress. But those in favor of adopting Western attire countered that the 
change in attire was indispensable if Japan was to join the international 
community.

      Their argument prevailed.

      I sometimes fantasize what would have happened if the pro-kimono camp 
had won. Even if it did, I don't imagine we would have remained so stuck in 
tradition as to be still wearing full court kimono or half-length Japanese 
coats in our daily business.

      However, I feel pretty certain there would be far fewer men wearing 
neckties at the height of the sweltering summer.

      In the more than 130 years since that early summer of 1871, Diet 
members and bureaucrats have made it a rule to wear a tie to work-with the 
exception of the years during World War II. But on June 1, Cabinet ministers 
and civil servants ended this tradition to ``help ease global warming.''

      According to Environment Minister Yuriko Koike, who came up with the 
idea, ``Japanese men are overpackaged. They have been testing their limits 
of endurance to heat by wearing a tie in summer.'' There should be different 
opinions from men who do not have any choice to wear ties.

      Throughout this, the necktie industry has been surprisingly quiet.

      Takeshi Kobori, the 70-year-old head of a Tokyo association of necktie 
makers, said: ``Of course we are not happy. But our industry hasn't got the 
luxury to complain to politicians because we are too busy just struggling 
for survival.''

      That was in stark contrast to the oil embargo days of the early 1970s, 
when the former Ministry of International Trade and Industry told the 
nation's men to stop wearing ties. Kobori said his association then 
complained to the ministry at once.

      But times have since changed.

      Not only are Japanese men wearing ties less frequently, but cheap 
imports from China have driven established tie makers, some of which have 
been around since before the war, into bankruptcy.

      The Environment Ministry even was to hold a summer fashion show June 5 
using the nation's business leaders as models.

      I have nothing against Koike's zeal to let the public sector lead the 
private sector in men's fashion. However, when it is so obvious that it is 
really the government telling men in Japan to shed their neckties, I am sure 
there are some who want to do just the opposite of what the government tells 
them-and wear one.

      --The Asahi Shimbun, May 29