Sweatin' the Kyoto "Cool"

By Coco Masters/New York

Don't call the fashion police just yet. As part of its campaign to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 6% of 1990 levels by 2012 (under the Kyoto Protocol), Japan has figured out a way to save energy with style: no tie, no jacket, no buttoning up. Dubbed "Cool Biz" (kuuru bizu), the new casual has officials and executives shedding their signature suits a la Clark Kent this summer and raising office thermostats 5DEGF, to a wilting 82.4DEG. Aptly dressed in casual clothes, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi hopes to save the second largest importer of oil 81 million gal. each summer. But the policy already has many conscripted conservationists sweating in their seats. "Like samurais giving up topknots and swords, it requires a change in mentality for salarymen to abandon suits and ties--it's their identity," says Environment Minister Yuriko Koike. An unexpected bonus: the campaign may generate as much as $942 million in fashion sales. --By Coco Masters/New York. With reporting by Yuki Oda/Tokyo

With reporting by Yuki Oda/Tokyo