As a long and hot summer has finally come to an end and the air is - slowly - getting cooler, our air conditioners finally get to chill (pun absolutely intended).
And although it's still much warmer here than in my home country at this time of year, the dreaded heating season is almost upon us.
As a Swiss expat, your instincts kick in: Time to fire up the central heating! Simple, right? Just ensure your gigantic oil tank in the cellar is full, your gas connection is alive and kicking, or your heat pump is ready to rock. Voilà! Toasty abode achieved.
Occasionally, you might have to nudge the thermostat a bit, especially when the weather throws a curveball with a surprise Arctic blast or when December decided to dress up as early spring. But overall, you're good.
But Japanese homes play by a different rulebook.
When I was fresh off the plane, moving into my in-laws’ house in the Japan Alps in late September 1996, with already a distinct chill in the air, it was like stumbling into a parallel universe. What I encountered was a bewildering absence of radiators or underfloor heating. Instead, every room featured a kerosene fan heater, a gadget I had never seen before.
The reason? Your typical Japanese house, whether traditional or modern, laughs in the face of central heating. Japanese homes don’t believe in equal-opportunity warmth. No, no! They practise “tactical heating”: you just warm up the place where you are at any given moment.
Empty bedroom? No need to warm it. Toilet unoccupied? Frosty throne, my friend. Well, actually, not quite, because the high-tech washlet with seat heating keeps your posterior warm - if not the rest of your body.
The concept of a kerosene fan heater is simple: Fill the removable tank, push the button, and almost instantaneously, cosy warmth envelops you.
The plus side? Quick warmth and low cost.
The drawbacks? Oh boy:
- For one, you regularly need to make an expedition to the nearest petrol station to fill the 18-litre tank.
- The (typically orange-coloured) tank usually sits near the entrance, where it's easily accessible, but also an eyesore.
- Once every one or two days (depending on usage), you need to refill the heater tank by pumping kerosene from the big tank, in the process ending up smelling like a walking fuel depot. And if your time management skills are not up to scratch, you may have to do that in the dead of night.
- Every couple of hours the heater will automatically shut off, for safety reasons.
There is another alternative, though, which involves no tank refills or kerosene odours: The kotatsu, a low table with an electric heater inside that gets covered with a thick blanket and a heavy table-top piece. You then stick your legs inside the kotatsu to keep warm while watching TV or having your dinner. So typically a kotatsu can only be found in the living room, which is little help for the rest of the house.
And if you don’t combine it with a fan heater at the same time, you may still have to wear a thermal jacket. But at least your feet are warm...
You can see, heating solutions in Japanese homes are at best patchy.
Wouldn’t it be more economical (and comfortable) to have central heating in every room, you ask?
Well, Japan stands alone among G7 countries when it comes to insulation standards, so the heat is escaping like a squirrel on adrenaline. Yep, you read that right - Japan is the rebel without a thermal cause!
So why doesn’t Japan have stricter insulation standards? One reason is that traditionally homes were designed to deal with hot, humid summers rather than cold winters. They were built to allow maximum airflow to cool the house during the hot season. As you can imagine, this isn't exactly great for insulation in winter.
Also, some regions (though by no means all) have mild winters, making stringent insulation less of a priority.
But here’s a reality check: Having a drafty home is no longer enough to keep you cool during the fiery heat in recent years, and air conditioning units in every single room are no longer a luxury, but an absolute necessity. They’re now the hero of survival, not only preventing heatstroke during the summer, but pulling double duty, keeping you also cosy in winter, as a more convenient alternative to fan heaters.
The concept of heating on a room-to-room basis remains the same, though. Just minus the kerosene stench and regular trips to the petrol station, but with an electricity bill that can rival the GDP of a small country.
But the main reason for poor insulation standards is apparently economics. A prime indicator in Japan of economic health is new housing construction, and anything that is perceived to be a drag on new housing construction and sales, such as stricter design standards, is considered “damaging to the overall economy”. Of course, the government does mandate design standards for some structural elements, earthquake-proofing being the most well-known. But it hasn't been extended to insulation.
In our house we have gas-powered floor heating on the middle floor, where the living and dining areas are located, keeping us warm and toasty throughout winter. While quite common in recent condominium builds, it’s less so in detached houses. And it's limited to just one floor. No such luck on the ground and top floor - aka the Arctic and Antarctic zones of the house.
So in order to avoid hypothermia, we make do with a combination of electric hot carpets and air conditioning. The Tokyo Electric Power Company thanks us for it, as I’m sure we must be one of their best customers, believing in 24/7 warmth.
What a contrast to my in-laws' house back in the 90s, where I would come downstairs to the living room on a typical winter morning, only to be greeted by almost sub-zero temperatures, making me feel like Frosty the Snowman.
Over the years they have upgraded their house, installing double-glazing, a permanent oil heater connected to a large oil tank behind the house, as well as air conditioning in all the rooms. Not quite “central-heating” standard, but a lot more bearable.
They do have a habit, though, of turning the boiler off whenever they don’t use hot water, which is also a concept I’m struggling with. In Switzerland, you won't even find a switch to turn on/off the boiler. The hot water supply is ever present whenever you need it.
When my brother was visiting a few years ago and stayed at my in-laws' house, he inadvertently took the "ice bucket challenge" during his first shower, thanks to my forgetting to warn him. But at least it cured him instantly of his jet lag...
So, welcome to Japan - where heating is a tactical adventure.