Unintended Conseqences…
Unintended consequences…
March’s Earthquake now linked to a rise in crime in big cities… how? Read on..
1. First, Japan is very hot & humid in the summer, but I bet you knew that already.
2. Second, Because of the earthquake & Fukushima’s daiichi Nuclear power plant being down (amongst other power reasons) there’s been a BIG push to “save power” this summer (i.e. dramatically reduce AC, lights, fan use) known locally as “Setsu-den” （節電）.
3. Thirdly, according to the video, to save power at night power-companies and local municipalities have turned off a large number of the street lamps & residents, to stay cool, have opened up their windows (this instead of leaving their windows closed and turning on the AC).
As a consequence, however, of the streets being pitch black now and everyone’s windows being gaping wide open– ‘crime-in-the-dark’ has gone up (surprise- surprise). This, naturally, has citizens of big cities worried.
As a response police have increased their rounds of patrolling neighborhoods and “Neighborhood Watch” groups are getting together during their free time to also ‘patrol’ the neighborhood (though during the day in seems?!) for signs of ‘fishy activity.’
Additionally, residents of Japan are advised to start purchasing ‘anti-theft and safety devices’ for their homes such as window jams, loud crunchy lava rock for their yards, buzzers on sliding doors & windows, and my favorite ‘locking window bars’ which cost (up to) $1,000.
Personally all of this sounds like a compounding problem. Sure it’s good to save power when there has been some serious power usage issues happening, but really at the cost of safety? Locally around here when I ask people about “Setsu-den” the general answer is most people ignore it. They’ll turn a few lights off, but when it hits 33C during the day its murder not to run an AC or fan.
It’s obvious that Japanese people are stressed out. Yesterday’s earthquake here is just a reminder of what’s happened this year and that its not exactly over yet.
~J out