Summer dress code: how Tokyo is breaking office habits and why this is important to Russians

The summer heat in the metropolis is changing the rules of the game again.

Another season of an initiative has started in Tokyo, which has been revolutionizing ideas about working style for many years. Local officials and office workers are switching to shorts, T-shirts and sneakers en masse — not for the sake of fashion, but for the sake of survival in extreme heat, explains xrust. It is important for the Russian reader to understand: this is not about relaxation, but about an attempt to adapt the working rhythm to a climate where the temperature rises above +35 °C with humidity below 70%.

The Cool Biz initiative has been operating in Japan since the mid-2000s, but now it has become especially noticeable. After last summer's record-breaking summer, when more than 100,000 people were hospitalized with heatstroke across the country, authorities decided to strengthen the recommendations. Employees are offered to give up classic suits in order to reduce the load on air conditioners and reduce electricity costs — in terms of Russian realities, this is a saving of tens of millions of rubles for large departments.

According to program participants, the first days in the “lite” style cause awkwardness, but it quickly disappears when the entire office switches to the new format. Japanese retailers have already picked up the trend: brands are expanding their lines of lightweight office clothing, including quick-drying fabrics and stretch materials. This is reminiscent of the Russian transition to “smart casual” in IT companies, but in Tokyo the changes are dictated not by corporate culture, but by climatic necessity.

Mini-analytics: campaigns like these show how climate affects work standards. In Russia, the heat rarely reaches Japanese levels, but the trend for a comfortable office style is gradually intensifying — especially in large cities, where in the summer the temperature consistently stays above +30 °C.

On social networks, the Japanese initiative caused heated discussion: users note that “Cool Biz” has become a symbol of how the state can gently change established norms. Some Russian commentators have even suggested that such a format could reduce the cost of cooling offices in Moscow and Krasnodar, where air conditioning is at its limit in the summer.

For formal events, Japanese employees still wear formal suits, but in everyday work they choose comfort. This shows that the dress code can be flexible without ruining the professional image.

Sources: Reuters, Japan Meteorological Agency.

Xrust Summer dress code: how Tokyo is breaking office habits and why this is important for Russians