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Turning Japanese? The
Post Sure Thinks So
Front page article lauds energy savings
that have many freezing in their homes.
By Dan Gainor
Business & Media Institute
Jan. 16, 2006
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The Japanese have gone so gung-ho with energy conservation that some
parts of that nation have turned off heat and leave workers freezing
at their desks. Rather than criticize what would likely be illegal
were it tried in America, Post reporter Anthony Faiola lauded it,
suggesting “perhaps no people serve as better role models than the
energy-miser Japanese.”
    That wasn’t the story Faiola presented. Images of
shivering workers, massive government regulation and enormous costs
were commonplace in his February 16, front-page piece. “To save on
energy, local officials shut off the heating system in the town
hall, leaving themselves and 100 workers no respite from
near-freezing temperatures,” he explained. The story said “rows of
desks were brimming with employees bundled in coats and wool
blankets while nursing thermoses of hot tea.”
    Even Faiola acknowledged that “energy conservation can
have its drawbacks.” Buried near the end of the article was this
negative: “Back in the cold town hall in Kamiita, for instance, more
and more workers are coming to the office wearing surgical masks and
taking preventive medicines to ward off winter colds.”
The temperatures weren’t the only things that might Americans sick
at the sight of the Japanese program. The energy saving regulations
are increasing prices on all sorts of electronics, creating a demand
for “energy-saving – but higher-priced – consumer products.’
According to Faiola: “The government has set strict new
energy-saving targets for 18 kinds of consumer and business
electronics.”
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The left wouldn’t be happy: Although Faiola mentioned
the Japanese following the greenhouse gas mandates of the
Kyoto treaty, the article stated that they have invested
billions of dollars into coal, much criticized by the green
movement. As the article put it: “Oil was replaced in part by
coal.”
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No nukes? Faiola gave a passing reference to Japanese
pursuit of nuclear energy, but rather than explain this
further, he insisted that “experts say” that “Japan has had
little choice but to turn energy efficiency into an art form.”
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More energy efficient: The article described the
Japanese as more energy efficient than Americans, but didn’t
bother to mention that lack of land forces most Japanese to
live in large metropolitan areas, limiting their commute.
    Not exactly an ideal prescription for
success in the United States: sickness, high costs, regulation and
hazardous working conditions.
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