Daylight Saving Time will start on April 6 --- Its advantages and why Japan doesn’t adopt DST updated: 070227

New! Beginning in 2007, most of the United States begin Daylight Saving Time (or Daylight Savings Time) at 2:00 a.m. on the second Sunday in March and revert to standard time on the first Sunday in November. < http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/b.html > “Spring forward, Fall back.”

Daylight Saving Time (DST) begins at 2 a.m. on the first Sunday of April and ends at 2 a.m. on the last Sunday of October. This year, Daylight Saving Time will start on April 6 and end on October 26. Most parts of the US observe Daylight Saving Time, although some such as Hawaii and most of Arizona don’t.

One of the reasons why we use Daylight Saving Time is to save energy. At home we use a good portion of electricity for lighting and small electric appliances　such as TV, audio equipment, and computers. Lights and small appliances are mostly used in the evenings. If we set the clock one hour ahead by introducing Daylight Saving Time, we can reduce electricity usage every day.

Here are three advantages of Daylight Saving Time:

(1) Daylight Saving Time reduces electricity consumption^*).

(2) Daylight Saving Time reduces traffic injuries and fatalities.

(3) Daylight Saving Time reduces crime.

Many countries such as European countries and Australia use Daylight Saving Time as well.

We wonder why Japan doesn’t adopt Daylight Saving Time to save energy.
We’ve just found the interesting reasons in Source 2: Japan adopted DST after WWII to save energy, but they stopped using it in the early 1950s because of opposition by farmers. The Ministry of International Trade and Industry has been striving to re-introduce DST, but so far farmers and the Ministry of Education haven't allowed it. One reason why the Ministry of Education opposes the adoption of DST is that they are concerned that light evenings may make school children slack off on their homework.

*) U.S. Government studies demonstrate that Daylight Saving Time reduces national electricity consumption by 1% daily.

Sources:
1) < http://www.boulder.nist.gov/timefreq/general/daylightsaving.html >
2) < http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/g.html >

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