Ultra Cool Biz: Japan's civil servants strip off

So, when you’ve already used the snappy “Cool Biz” as a rallying call for your audacious plan to get a nation’s wage-slaves to ditch their neckties, what’s the next level when it’s just, y’know, too damn hot? Why, “Ultra Cool Biz,” of course.

That’s the new line in the sand that’s been drawn by the burghers of Takeo City in Saga Prefecture, as they aim to out-cool the cats in Tokyo.

Too hot to handle

Local government workers in the Kyushu-ken town are being told to rock up to work in shorts and T-shirts so they can tolerate the summer’s broiling-hot office temperatures a little better.

Despite Saga being so far from Tokyo, the well-documented drive to save electricity post-Fukushima is still a factor, as Kyushu has its own issues with nuclear power plants.

In other words, the office air-con will be set to “weak-ass” all summer. Still, it makes a change to see a little forward thinking from the suits. Sorry, singlets, shorts and hopelessly mismatched black socks and shoes.

Looking ahead

Ultra Cool Biz follows Cool Biz itself and a previous ban on beards for some reason, so one can but speculate as to what’s next in the race for headlines.

Heaven forbid that summer 2012 should go down as the year of “Birthday Suit Biz.” Nothing’s too outrageous for those wacky local-government guys and gals, after all.