Record number of people saving water: gov't survey

Sunday 10th August, 05:50 AM JST

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Pukey2 at 11:10 AM JST - 10th August

How about using bath water to flush the toilets and as the first rinse when using the washing machine. Isn't the water that goes into the toilet cistern clean water? What a waste. My cistern is actually huge and I feel it such a waste to use the 'big' flush'. And we all know how much Jp women flush toilets.
nandakandamanda at 11:37 AM JST - 10th August

Recent newspaper article that I cut out and used with my students.

Question. Why are people saving water? Answer. To save on their water bills. Nothing to do with the environment.

Question: Is this a good thing for the country? Answer: No.

Question: Why not? Answer: To pay for the many giant dam building projects, each city and distric has been allocated an amount of water that they must buy. None of these has kept up their payments. Dam debts hang like a millstone.

Question: Why don't the cities buy what they should? Answer: One of the reasons is that more and more people are trying to save money on their water bills.
smithinjapan at 12:57 PM JST - 10th August

So... they're actually going to stop watering the pavement as though something will grow from it? They should ban that in Kyoto, where part of being a 'Kyoto-jin' means you HAVE to water the street in front of your house mornings and evenings.
presto345 at 01:45 PM JST - 10th August

Water has always been and still is in plentiful supply in Japan, except for a few localities. Some people have their doubts about the need to save on water use, and some doubt the Japanese even know what conserving water is. It's like the gasoline issue in the US, it used to be so easy to fill up and so cheap. It takes time for people to adjust to the different horizon.
Mark_McCracken at 02:07 PM JST - 10th August

Save water? Why, is Biwako empty? Kansai does not seem to lack water.
nandakandamanda at 02:41 PM JST - 10th August

There was a new sign above the hand basin in the college toilet some weeks ago.

水は大切な資源。節約に協力しましょう。Water is a precious resource. Let's try and cut down on usage.

I was surprised, because the last time we were short of water in this area was about 10 years ago. Quite casually I asked some people, why now? The answer was always the same. First laughter that I might think it was to actually save water itself. Hahahahaha.... "The college simply wants to cut its water bills", was the unanimous reply. Duh...
nisegaijin at 04:56 PM JST - 10th August

why do we need to save water? isn't 70% of earth is actually water? isn't water constantly in cycle?
TheNewZen at 05:03 PM JST - 10th August

Why we need to save water is because we are running out of "fresh water" that is fit for human consumption.

Yeah, still plenty of "fresh water" out there but most is too polluted to be consumed/used untreated. Example: The big lakes in the USA cannot be consumed and fish-stocks are starting to decline. Same for many rivers and lakes worldwide.

"Fresh Water" supplies are already so short in some areas that we will soon see wars breaking out over water resources. Example: The Middle East will be such a region.

Some countries also started selling fresh water to others as they still got a surplus.

All in all our "fresh water" supplies are not in a good state.
cwhite at 06:00 PM JST - 10th August

smithinjapan, some info on Uchimizu for you

A little prologue: www.uchimizu.jp/eng/

A good case study: www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&q=%22study+the+effect+of+Uchimizu%22
SushiSake3 at 10:36 PM JST - 10th August

presto345 - "Water has always been and still is in plentiful supply in Japan, except for a few localities."

No it isn't. Kyushuu very nearly ran out of water about 4 years ago.

The only thing that replenished the island's water supply was a rainy season typhoon.

At my place, we're saving pre-used water from the shower hose and using it to water plants out the back at night and in the washing mmachine in the morning.

There is NOTHING more important than water in the physical world.
electric2004 at 01:51 AM JST - 11th August

Saving water from Shower or Bath does not help so much for the water bill.

Of course, the water for the small children pool is recycled afterwards to water the flowers in the evening.

Still, the sewage water bill is calculated from used fresh-water.
Mark_McCracken at 02:07 AM JST - 11th August

TheNewZen - "Yeah, still plenty of "fresh water" out there but most is too polluted to be consumed/used untreated."

OK, so treat it. Japan does. The only problem with water Japan seems to have is when there is a drought. As Japan's population declines those droughts should become less troublesome.
Ah_so at 04:30 AM JST - 11th August

Niigata has so much water it could happily supply the rest of Japan, as long as you take some of the rain too. Tap water also tastes better than anything out of a bottle. It is still worth saving however, because the water company charges for the amount you use.

One tip to save water is to use the bathwater for the washing machine.
ReaganLegend at 04:54 AM JST - 11th August

It would be more interesting to know if these people were saving water for environmental or economic reasons.
WMD at 10:29 AM JST - 11th August

Hardly matters in Hokkaido and tohoku areas where snowfall is so massive. People save on water usage like they save on gasoline usage. High prices. Who's got any money anymore??