Kanto area faces water restrictions next week

I've always been amazed how much obaasans waste when they make a big kettle full of tea and then cool it in the sink by letting the cold water tap run into the bowl where the kettle is standing for hours on end. Why not make enough tea for the next day, let it cool and put it in the fridge overnight? I mean it's not as though you don't know, by now, how much tea your home or office is going to drink on a given day! Why make hot tea and cool it for consumption on the same day?

The Kanto Regional Development Bureau plans to cut the water supplied to Tokyo and surrounding prefectures by 10% next week due to a water shortage.

Hey "Sometimes I wish I lived closer to Tokyo, but in this situation, so happy to be a resident of Kanagawa!" Magnet, the last time I checked, Kanagawa prefecture lies within the Kanto region... Why not simply stop wasting water because it is the right thing to do for the environment, regardless of where you happen to live?

Born and raised in California, perhaps I am more sensitive to this issue than most, but seeing older men and women liberally watering the pavement in front of their homes or shops always makes me cringe. What a waste of water! Will someone ask these people to stop doing this now?

And ladies, stop flushing the toilet multiple times when you take a little tinkle. Nobody cares about the sound. Drives me batty.

when I first came here I spent ten minutes looking for the kitchen sink plug. Of course, there is no such thing!

Modern kitchen sinks tend to be quite large; you'd use a lot of water if you insisted on filling up the kitchen sink every time you wanted to wash a few cups and plates. Most folk use a bowl inside the sink, which means they use less water, not more. That's not counting the folk who wash the dishes under a continuous stream of hot running water, of course (I cannot claim to be totally innocent here.)

You can get kitchen sink plugs, by the way - I know my local home & garden store sells them cos I bought one a couple of weeks ago.

I'm a bit surprised that there's a water shortage. Yes, the rainy season was pretty dry and short, but since it ended we've had torrential rain / squalls almost every evening. Maybe the rain just isn't falling in the right places.

The Japan Meteorological Agency said the there is little likelihood of rain falling in the Kanto region for the rest of this month.

Weathernews app says rain on Tuesday, that's still July. Hmmm. Still, not much rain this year. Would be sad to see my garden have to go dry. Hope the weather pattern changes soon. Enjoying the cool weather though.

Perhaps they should take all of the snow that hits Hokkaido and put it into a reservoir, There is more than enough to go around.

Summer heat and little water. Not a good combination!

I hope the "throw water on the ground" day is canceled this year because of this

Rice fields don't get much if any water from the same places drinking water is damned up, also you wouldn't want to drink the water used as it tends to come form the lower reaches of the rivers

Conserving water also helps to reduce CO2 emissions. In order to use tap water, dams must be constructed, water supply and sewage treatment facilities are required which actually emits more CO2. For this reason conserving water in each household actually leads to the reduction of large amounts of CO2 as a result.

I thought we received a lot of rain at the beginning of July from that passing typhoon. I remember postponing a hiking trip a few times because it rained several straight days.

@ebisen - i know that - out here in the sticks of the Kanto plain there are still many many places without those fancy machines.

I hope automatic toilets are fixed. Every time someone move a little as sitting on a toilet, suddenly flush for no purpose. So much waste water!

Sometimes I wish I lived closer to Tokyo, but in this situation, so happy to be a resident of Kanagawa!

In the UK in 1976, the govt urged short showers and to stop using baths. They need to do that here as well. But I wonder how flexible the mindset is.

I've always said that water consumption in Japan was extremely excessive. I remember when I first came here I spent ten minutes looking for the kitchen sink plug. Of course, there is no such thing! So, Kanto is going to have experience what most Australians experience every summer. However, I doubt if the restrictions will be as severe or carry as hefty penalties for violators as those in Australia.

Sure we'll be OK in Chiyoda :) I washed my cars today so am not particularly bothered by this at all.

sillygirl, in case you didn't noticed yet, the flushing sound you're hearing is almost certainly artificial, meaning that no water is being wasted. Google otohime and you'll see what I mean.

Wow, I wonder why Japan uses so much water? Germany uses about half as much as Japan. Well Japan DOES get a lot of rain...

There sure is a myth in Japan that the Japanese like to conserve... they don't.

@Thomas Anderson, considering Japan's population has roughly 40,000,000 more people in roughly the same total area size... You do the math.

"I doubt that the Japanese are in dire need of getting conservation tips from Americans. One of the US's biggest consumers (and wasters) of water is the city of Las Vegas."

Silly comparison. Japan doesn't have vast deserts, let alone massive and rapidly growing cities in these deserts (LA included). That America has been able to achieve that is testimony to its sophisticated water policies.

Japan, meanwhile, with its temperature climate, gets plenty of rain and yet suffers water shortages. (Tokyo gets twice as much rain as London.)

@Thomas Anderson, considering Japan's population has roughly 40,000,000 more people in roughly the same total area size... You do the math.

Umm, obviously I'm talking about per person.

@Thomas Anderson,

I wonder why Japan uses so much water? Germany uses about half as much as Japan.

Umm, obviously you're not aware of what obvious means, as you clearly referred to countries as single entities in these statements. Regardless, Japanese do conserve, just not always in the ways expected.