Summer time a hard sell in Japan

SAPPORO, Japan — In the land of the rising sun, no one can seem to agree on when it does. Rise, that is. Or set, for that matter.

This summer, thousands of people on Hokkaido island switched to daylight-saving time with the idea that they'd start work an hour earlier and get off in time to enjoy the long summer evenings. But thousands of others here didn't make the switch. And to make things more quixotic, the rest of the country wasn't on board with the spring-forward thing.

Proponents of daylight-saving time want to expand their 5-year-old experiment to the rest of Japan. But it's been a mixed bag. One big problem is that people don't turn their clocks an hour ahead, as they do in the West, because daylight-saving time isn't official, and it's entirely voluntary. Hundreds of companies and government offices in Sapporo and elsewhere on Hokkaido participate in the program, but others ignore "summertime," as it's called here. Some banks follow it, but other institutions, such as public schools, don't.

"Everybody has different ideas about it," said Mitsuhito Araya, 52, director of Sapporo city's general planning department.

Araya likes daylight-saving time. He has no problem coming to work at 8 instead of 9 — it's a "fresh experience," he said.

But he seldom leaves the office earlier because he finds it hard to go home before others do, not all of whom start an hour earlier. Every now and then, Araya says, he sneaks out at 5 p.m., as he did on a recent Thursday when he met his wife for a drink and dinner at a cozy restaurant.

"It's rare for Japanese families, and husband and wife, to spend time together," he said.

Others see summertime as a way to save energy and boost consumer spending. But at the Sapporo city government, only about 900 of the 12,000 employees switched to daylight-saving time this year. That can complicate coordination among departments for meetings and other functions. Citizens have complained about public employees not being available late in the afternoon.

Part of the reason for the low participation may be summertime's checkered past here: Daylight-saving time was introduced during the U.S. occupation after World War II. Many Japanese associated it with defeat and longer work hours, and it was dropped in 1952.

Since then, Japanese politicians have tried to revive the system. But then, as today, people remain suspicious about the claims of benefit to employees.

After Japan's long economic malaise, with the "lost decade" and the unraveling of lifetime employment, some wonder whether daylight-saving time is a plot by employers to wring extra work out of them without paying overtime.

Yet, if any place here seemed suitable for summertime hours, Masato Sato, a spokesman for North Pacific Bank, and others figured it would be Hokkaido.

In Japan's northernmost island, the sun rises as early as 4:30 a.m. in the summer and doesn't set until nearly 15 hours later. The Japanese archipelago is rich in natural beauty, with pristine forests, national parks and gorgeous coastlines for the enjoyment of those who can break away from work.

Hokkaido's Chamber of Commerce and Industry initiated the drive five years ago, with 221 companies and 6,000 workers participating that summer.

Tens of thousands of people have since joined the program.

North Pacific Bank, Hokkaido's largest, was driven by self-interest. With the island's population among the fastest-shrinking in the nation, the bank hoped that daylight-saving time could prop up the island's sagging economy and abysmal consumer activity.

"If we go back home earlier, we will go shopping and do leisure activities — and that will have an economic effect," said Sato, although he couldn't cite any data to show that was happening.

Honma's main reason for opposing daylight-saving time is sleep — or lack of it.

When people turn their clocks forward an hour, they lose an hour of sleep until they adjust to the change, which can sometimes take three weeks.