Osaka's "Third Way" to Conserve Electricity in Summer: Citizen Informants

The boy-wonder mayor of Osaka City, who wants to teach "the next generation" a lesson on electricity conservation by having them experience rolling blackouts, proposes his "third way" to combat electricity consumption during the peak hours in the hot summer days.

(As a reminder, the first way is to restart Ooi Nuclear Power Plant in Fukui Prefecture, and the second way is to have the rolling blackouts.)

What's his third way? Mainichi Shinbun says it is to turn the residents into the informants for the local government who will rat out businesses that look like using too much electricity.

From Mainichi Shinbun evening paper for Osaka (part; 5/15/2012):

一方、大阪府市エネルギー戦略会議は１５日、独自の節電策を提示した。照明が明るすぎるオフィスや店舗を住民が見つけて通報し、中小事業者に節電を促す「節電通報窓口」の設置や、真夏の午後に役所を閉めて節電するなど、家庭や事業者、官公庁などを対象に計約１１０万キロワットの節電を目指す。

On the other hand, the energy strategy conference of Osaka Prefecture and Osaka City proposed its own plan to save electricity on May 15. It includes setting up the "electricity saving informing counter" where the residents report offices and stores whose lighting is too bright, encouraging electricity saving among medium- and small-size businesses. The plan also calls for shutting down the government offices in the afternoon during the middle of summer. Overall, 1.1 million kilowatt saving is being targeted from households, businesses, and government offices.

I don't see why it should stop at reporting the seemingly wasteful businesses. Everybody against everybody else, like the life under the Stasi, except the Japanese are probably better at it than East Germans. After all, 250 years of peace during the Edo era (until the Black Ships appeared) were partly maintained by the "group of 5　households" in which people watched their 4 other neighboring households for suspicious behaviors, for mutual assistance, and for collective responsibility. That system was resurrected as the "neighborhood group" in the Showa era before the World War II, and it continues today as "voluntary" neighborhood association all over Japan, though without collective responsibility or mutual watch for suspicious behaviors.

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