Japan's quake may impact time after altering its space
By Shinichi Saoshiro
March 26 (Reuters) - Japan's cataclysmic earthquake and tsunami, which shattered towns and altered its coastline, may also have an impact on time in the country.
Japan may shed its decades-old allergy to daylight savings time in an effort to cut down electricity usage as it struggles to cope with a drop in power output after the strongest earthquake in its history on March 11 triggered a huge tsunami that knocked out a nuclear power plant.
The magnitude 9.0 quake was so powerful it shifted the coastline eight feet to the east (2.4 metres) around its epicentre in the northeast, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said on Friday the government would begin estimating the impact and cost of adopting daylight savings and how much support it would get from the private sector.
Japan has had to implement rolling blackouts after the double disaster crippled the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant near the epicentre. The mismatch between supply and demand is set to widen in Japan's summer when electricity usage traditionally peaks with the use of air conditioners.
C locks are set one hour ahead in daylight savings time t o give the day more natural daylight, thus helping to alleviate the need for arti fi cial lighting. The sun appears to rise one hour later in the morning and set an hour later in the evening.
Daylight savings, briefly introduced in Japan during the U.S. occupation after World War Two, has had a handful of advocates, but until now no serious government consideration.
Opponents have cite d various reasons, ranging from fears that setting the clock forward in the spring and back in the autumn would result in something akin to jet lag, to union concerns it would lead to longer job hours, given unspoken workplace practices that frown on going home before dark. Continued...