Yuriko Koike said using turtlenecks could help reduce energy bills. “Warming the throat has a thermal effect. I wear a turtleneck too and the scarf keeps you warm. This will save electricity,” Yuriko Koike told reporters on Friday. “This is one of the tools to overcome the harsh energy climate of winter together.” He said French President Emmanuel Macron was “taking the lead in wearing a turtleneck”. Japan has long run an annual “cool biz” campaign, in which a casual dress code is encouraged in offices to save energy during the country’s sweltering summers. The winter edition is labeled, appropriately enough, “hot biz.” Japan – which aims to become carbon neutral by 2050 – has faced pressure on its energy supply, as have many countries since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February. Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, called in August for a push to revive the country’s nuclear power industry in an effort to tackle rising costs of imported power. But such a move would likely prove controversial after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, triggered by a massive tsunami, which led to the shutdown of many reactors over safety fears. Eleven years later, 10 of Japan’s 33 nuclear reactors are back in operation, although not all operate year-round and the country remains heavily dependent on imported fossil fuels.
