Tokyo - The idea might have been to help slow global warming, but Japan's necktie makers fear a government-led campaign to urge people to dress casually to enable air conditioners to be turned down during the summer months could be seriously bad for business.
With Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi leading the way, the government kicked off a national "No jacket, no tie" campaign this month that urges business workers to ditch the tie and jacket so that air conditioning can be turned down to save energy. Top government leaders are now showing up in Parliament and at Cabinet meetings in shirts without ties.
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The idea is taking hold among local government too, and has prompted a slew of TV programmes and magazines to start evaluating the fashion sense of each minister.
The tongue-in-cheek "fashion check" column in the Weekly Asahi magazine said Koizumi looked like "a retiree" in a plain, moss green button-down shirt tucked into his grey trousers, described Home Affairs Minister Taro Aso, wearing a gold necklace underneath an oversized white shirt, as "a shady broker" and likened Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki, in a pale Mao-collar shirt buttoned up to the top, to "a massage therapist".
But necktie makers said Thursday they fear the new dress code could cost them up to 30 percent of their 1,83-billion dollars (about R12-billion) annual sales.
"We are not opposing the Cool Biz itself. Dressing cool is fine," said Tetsuo Yamada, a spokesperson for the Federation of Japanese Necktie Unions. "The problem is the slogan that discriminates against neckties."
The group last week submitted an official protest, asking Environment Minister Yuriko Koike to change the promotional copy so that it does not "discriminate against a particular product".
Yamada said the campaign is particularly damaging because it started just as the industry was expecting sales to increase ahead of June 19 Fathers' Day.
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