Part 2: Why We Dry Laundry Outside

The main reason we dry laundry outside in Japan is cost, Yen, Ducats, bucks, dollars, scratch, etc.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, "Despite limited natural gas resources, Japan is a large natural gas consumer and must rely on imports for virtually all of its natural gas needs. Lacking international pipeline connections, today Japan is the largest importer of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the world and currently accounts for about 40 percent of global LNG imports."

Basically, Japan likes natural gas (NG) because it's relatively environmentally friendly compared with coal, for example. However, lacking sufficient local deposits, we import it in liquid form and end up paying global prices. In the U.S., where there is a much greater national supply, consumers enjoy a relatively cheap fossil fuel and can afford to run NG clothes dryers. We sometimes pay up to twice as much per mmBtu here. My apartment's gas bill, for example showed equal consumption when compared with my previous U.S. home, however the total cost was 200% because of the higher NG rate paid. Having a NG clothes dryer would be a luxury here most would not care to afford. It would markedly increase our consumption on an individual and national basis, which would drive prices even higher.

We use electricity for most automatic drying and also for heat. A country with as little natural resources in the way of fossil fuels like Japan relies heavily on nuclear power, which is relatively cheap. Your nuclear reactor is producing electricity at 3 cents per kWh, whereas coal and NG are much higher, from 6 - 12 cents, depending on the efficiency of the generator and the fuel. Thus, although we don't produce all of our electricity from nukes, we have enough to bring down the price per kWh overall to a usable level. We have air conditioning units that mount in the wall above the sliding glass doors of our apartment. They blow hot or cold, so you use them year round, once again avoiding excessive NG consumption, compared with typical American NG fueled furnaces.

This topic generally drives disputes over Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ), for example in the East China Sea's Chunxiao gas field, which both China and Japan claim access to. A good segue to Part 3...

Free Audio Book

You can download a free audio book from Audible.com here. It's by David Plotz of Slate's Political Gabfest podcast.

George is on Holiday

George is on holiday and won't be able to complete the next portion of his scintillating series on Japanese laundry habits until his return in late May.

Ciao!