As Tokyoites swelter in 95-degree heat and 80 per cent humidity – and companies are forced to cut back on the air-conditioning due to prices inflated by the Iran war – the salarymen, Japan’s army of traditionally sober-suited office workers, have taken the drastic step of going ‘cazh’. This means not just short-sleeved, open-necked shirts but, at the urging of the local government, horror of horrors: T-shirts and shorts.
In most countries, it wouldn’t be much of a problem, but such seemingly innocuous changes are especially problematic here, due to the amount of time the Japanese spend in the office
In response, some female Japanese staff, quaintly referred to as ‘office ladies’, are apparently so livid that the term ‘leg-hair harassment’ (‘sune-hara’) has been coined and is gaining currency. Leg-hair harassment refers to the feelings of revulsion felt at suddenly having to witness the bare and hairy legs of male colleagues.
The shorts at work initiative is the latest wheeze of Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike. It is a continuation of a now twenty-year campaign (called ‘Cool Biz’) aimed at getting office workers to dress down, enabling their companies to save on energy bills. When it began in 2005, it was endorsed by then-Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who was often seen without a jacket or tie.
