The people in Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost island, have taken to heart the injunction, “If you’re stuck with a lemon, make lemonade.”

Hokkaido’s problem isn’t anything as tropical as a surfeit of lemons—it’s the opposite. What they’re stuck with is a surplus of snow. Hokkaido’s annual snowfall exceeds five meters, more than double the totals of such balmy climes as Helsinki, Oslo, Innsbruck, Albertville, Minneapolis, Calgary, and Anchorage.

But according to this report in the Daily Mainichi, they’ve figured out a way to do something practical with it. The Bibai Natural Energy Research Organization in the local city of Bibai are working out ways to use snow for air-conditioning and refrigeration in the summer. The Itogumi Construction Co. has come up with a snow cooling system, and it’s in use right now is a small section of the lobby at Bibai’s City Hall.

Here’s how they do it:

A pool loaded into a container holds a 2-ton ice block and water, and the cooled water is sent to two separate cooling systems. The cooling systems can sufficiently cool a 30-tatami-mat room. A 2-ton snow block is put into the pool every Saturday.

Tatami mats are usually used as a standard for measuring room sizes. Traditionally, they have been roughly 90 cm by 180 cm, or 3 feet by 6 feet.

When I read this, I had to wonder about the expenditures for energy to keep the snow frozen during the warm weather until they get ready to use it. It turns out they’re still working on cutting costs, but they think they can get the overall price down to 700 yen (US$ 6.23) per ton in the near future. They also want to create a system of delivering snow blocks to households after receiving customer orders.

And that reminds me of another hoary expression—the more things change, the more things remain the same. In other words, the new technology using snow for climate control will result in the delivery of big blocks of snow to households, in the same way that, years ago, big blocks of ice were delivered to households for iceboxes, used to keep food cold until the modern refrigerator was created.

While we’re on the subject of Hokkaido and snow, here are some photos of the Sapporo Snow Festival taken by an Australian. And if you want to know what it’s like to live through a Hokkaido winter, this site from the Japanese government will give you an idea.

It’s June 1, the official start of the government’s “Cool Biz” campaign to get office workers to doff their ties and coats in order to reduce air conditioning requirements and save energy.

Cool Biz, which is the brainchild of Environment Minister Yuriko Koike (who qualified for her job based on a BA in Sociology from Cairo University and a stint as an economic newsreader babe on a Tokyo TV station), is the not the first attempt by the Japanese government to solve the nation’s energy problems with fashion statements. Years ago when oil prices were on the rise, the government announced a new Sho-ene Look (Energy Saving Look), which was achieved merely by lopping off the sleeves of the standard business suit. One look at the nearby photo should be enough to understand why the Sho-ene Look was a total and complete failure among the suit wearers of Nippon.

The current outbreak of energy conservation passion has been brought on by Japan’s need to achieve impossible goals set for it under the Kyoto Protocol. I still strongly suspect that most Japanese people did not know what they were getting into under the KP, and the only reason it got so much support here was because it was about the environment and it had the name “Kyoto” associated with it. No doubt people will start to have second thoughts about the Kyoto Protocol as the government begins to get more serious about bullying them into major lifestyle changes.

Check out the website of David Meyer (a.k.a. Papa) for some up-close and personal comments about dress codes of Japanese companies.

The more things change, the more they remain the same. Once again, Japan makes a fashion discovery thirty years behind the United States. Casual clothes are comfortable. At least this time it is a good idea we are borrowing.

Salaryman fashion is much in the news these days as the government urges businessmen to chuck their coats and ties during the muggy summer months in an effort to reduce energy (air conditioning) needs.

By the way, I have noticed recently that global warming is gradually being replaced by climate change in reports about what it is we are facing. I wonder how the government fashion gurus will deal with that one. . .

Now that impossible-to-attain deadlines are approaching and people are talking about putting a further burden on cash-strapped state coffers to pay for so-called ” emissions reduction credits,” even Japan is starting to have second thoughts about how to implement the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The government keeps coming up with various plans, but they are rightfully shying away from imposing a “carbon tax” on an economy for which flat-lining is considered to be a positive development.

Though Japan is obliged to curb its greenhouse gas emissions by 6% from the 1990 level by 2012 under Kyoto, emissions in fiscal 2002 were 7.6% higher than in 1990. Japan’s Environment Ministry originally said that a carbon tax is required in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but the government’s final plan merely called for discussion of a tax “in a serious and comprehensive manner.”

However, Environment Minister Yuriko Koike (who, apparently, is qualified for her job based on a BA in Sociology from Cairo University and a stint as an economic newsreader babe on a Tokyo TV station) says she still believes that taxing people into submission is an effective way to fight global warming. “We want to continue our discussions and aim to introduce the levy in fiscal 2006,” she said.

Usually by now the air is warming on the Kanto Plain and the cherry blossoms (the natural kind) are thinking about starting to get ready to bloom.

But not this year. . .

The nearby photo below shows the view that greeted me from my office window when I opened the curtains this morning.

Forecast for tomorrow? Bitter cold with temperatures dropping to mid-winter levels.

Brrrr. . . .