Hate daylight saving time? You may have a point, researchers say

Just move Japan one hour ahead for the whole year.

The resistance to DST in summer often seems to be that it is an unnatural Western import, whereas the slavish following of JST (itself based off of the time in London).

In the traditional Japanese clock system, dawn was the hour of the hare. That is when people woke up. The hour of the hare therefore moved around compared to a Western clock, but was at the hour of dawn.

This is much more logical and in tune with our body clocks. DST helps align Western time to nature.

Absolutely should be adopted in Japan. Who needs the sun up at 430am in the summer? As others have noted, your bedroom is a sauna by 5am, making it impossible to sleep without turning on the AC and wasting power and $. Another hour of sunlight at night in the summer makes getting off work, going home, and being able to enjoy your evenings with friends and family worth it. It's ludicrous the sun sets around 645pm at the latest in Japan in summer. Only the ojiisan who have the time to wake at 5am and sleep at 9pm favor and benefit from the current arrangement. If you don't believe me, do yourself a favor and spend a few days on the east coast of America in summer and marvel at sunlight at 9pm.

My retired Japanese father-in-law operates his own daylight saving plan. He gets up when it gets light in summer and goes to bed when it gets dark. He enjoys the cool summer mornings and cares not about the (European) concept of time.

This might seem eccentric but it is almost certainly what Japanese people used to do. Rise with the sun and sleep when it sets.

DST is a way of combining the inflexibility of the 24hr time and nature's seasons.

afanofjapan: I think that was a government policy last year. Not sure if they are doing it again this year, or if it had any effect.

Well since i doubt daylight savings will get implemented here in Japan anytime soon, i think i might talk to my boss about implementing my OWN daylight savings. i.e. start work at 8 and leave at 4:30.

If you're that worried about losing sleep go to bed an hour earlier. And if changing the clocks by one hour every six months is such a huge problem, what about people who work shifts? Should shift work be banned?

Japan should be one hour ahead all year round, and maybe another hour in summer.

I guess you haven't spent time in Japan during the summer - only to have the sun set and come home in darkness ... at 6:30pm

I have spent time in Japan in summer. And in Nagasaki sunset wasn't until 7:30pm.

People only seem to worry about their small part of the world. A time zone covers basically an hour of time. So a location at the eastern edge of a zone will have sunrise and sunset an hour earlier than a location on the western edge. Any change, like DST, will have different effects on the eastern and western edges.

evian1, I guess you haven't spent time in Japan during the summer - only to have the sun set and come home in darkness ... at 6:30pm. Tell me why we can't have the clock moved forward in Japan by an hour.

DST is a medieval outdated rather foolish system, only santa claus still continued to practise this todate. sigh

Todd Topolski, thans for the science lesson. Do you live in Japan? If you did you would understand that it would be nice to NOT have the sun rise at 4:30am and set at 6:30pm in the summer. I would welcome Japan to change by two time zones permanently. What a waste of two hours of sunlight (assuming most people wake up around 6:30am).

Wow, studies of all of that nonsense in the, article. How about an article where it calls the law, stupid. Because only a total moron actually believes changing a clock magically increases, or reduces daylight. Sorry whomever thinks this is useful, the Sun will rise and set based on the orbit and rotation of planet earth and absolutely nothing about changing your clock will alter when the sun rises or sets and therefore how much daylight will occur for a day.

Cry me a river. Lose an hour's sleep for ONE day? You get it back 6 months later anyway.

What i dont appreciate is the fact that the sun rises here at a little after 4 AM during summer. By the time you wake up for work its already 30+ degrees and likely your bedroom is close to that temperature as well; what a horrible way to wake up, dripping in sweat. Meanwhile you only have an hour or so of sunlight to enjoy after work.

Implement daylight savings, and you will get to enjoy a slightly cooler morning commute, you wont need to keep the curtains closed all night to block out the 4am sunlight, and you get an extra hour of sunlight in the evening to play with your kids or do any outdoor activity.

If all the detractors have to complain about is one day of shorter sleep, i think its pretty obvious that daylight savings is a good idea.

I love British Summer Time, it makes the summer days last longer. I still can't get used to summers in Japan when it gets too dark too early.