Forecasts of warm winter unnerve business people in Japan

Sept. 29, 2009

Forecasts of warm winter unnerve business people in Japan


An official long-term weather forecast indicates that Japan will have warm weather toward this winter. This should be a source of headache not only for those working on winter businesses but also for people in industries like tourism. The Meteorological Agency of Japan recently said the El Nino phenomenon of a higher sea surface temperature in the central to eastern parts of the Pacific will linger in the months ahead.

The ongoing global warming has already tended to delay the colored leaf viewing season across Japan. Weathermen estimate Japan’s average temperature from autumn to winter has risen by 2 to 3 degrees centigrade over the past 30 years. Package tours to famous spots with maple trees are a main product for tourist agencies every autumn, but they are having difficulty determining the timing for organizing the tours because the start of the maple tree viewing season is becoming more unpredictable.

With neither warp nor weft fixed on the loom,

the young girls have woven beautifully colored autumn leaves.

The frost, please do not fall on the leaves.
(A personal translation)

This is a waka poem composed by Prince Otsu and included in Japan’s oldest waka poem anthology Manyoshu, compiled in the eighth century. The prince, who was known for his talent as a poet but died young, likened the red and yellow leaves spreading on the hills to a work by nymphs.
Kamakura, south of Tokyo, is a major tourist spot and the home to a samurai regime from the 13th to 14th centuries. Deciduous trees in Kamakura, including gingkoes at a small park in Nishi-Mikado, do not turn red or yellow until late November or early December.
Japanese people are becoming aware of the need to make their life environmentally friendly to stop the global warming. Some experts say it is already too late, but people look more interested in using recyclable and energy-saving products to reduce CO2 emissions. If the climate change following the global warming continues, Japan’s four seasons are feared to become less visible than now. If so, businesses linked to seasonal needs will also be jeopardized, thereby affecting the economy as a whole.

Many people are coming to understand the seriousness of the global warming, but business people are generally reluctant to work with the government’s new initiative to reduce Japan’s greenhouse gas emissions by 25 pct by 2020 from the 1990 level. It is their turn to show their will to save the earth as corporate citizens.