JAPAN: Shirt maker sews in fan to beat summer heat

A Japanese company promotes air-conditioned jackets and shirts in a bid to help fight global warming. Self-cooling clothes may seem like the stuff of science fiction, but for one Japanese company they are not only good business but a way to help the environment. Shirts and jackets made by Kuchou-fuku -- literally "air-conditioned clothes" -- keep the wearer comfortable even in sweltering heat while using one-50th of the energy of a small air conditioner, Two small fans sewn into the back of each garment and powered by a pocket-sized rechargeable battery pack circulate air across the wearer's skin, evaporating perspiration and keeping temperatures down -- a welcome respite from Japan's mid-summer humidity and record-breaking heat in recent days. "It feels cooler when you're wearing this jacket than when you're not wearing it," said Toru Ichigaya, who works in the office of Kuchou-fuku where the temperature hovered around 38 degrees Celsius, Another worker, Yukie Asano, agrees, saying that the bulky jacket allows her to work comfortably despite the summer heat. "It almost feels like air is circulating inside my body," she said. The company in the suburbs of Tokyo invented those air-conditioned garments eight years ago in a bid to help fight global warming. "I worry about global warming as the number of air conditioners in the world continues to increase. I'd been trying to invent an air-conditioner that would require little energy, and reached the conclusion that air-conditioning does not have to cool the whole room," said Hiroshi Ichigaya, president and CEO of of Kuchou-fuku. The self-cooling clothes come in 10 styles and a variety of colours, all priced at 11,000 yen (96 USD) and sold on the internet and at limited retailers in Japan. The company has sold about 15,000 of those jackets, mostly to factory workers.

ITN Source | August 20, 2007

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