The government-led Super Cool Biz campaign to relax the office dress code to save electricity is prodding companies to seek new opportunities — and even bringing changes to a job-hunting scene that normally features stuffy dark suits.
Business suit retailer Haruyama Trading Co. may be one of the most aggressive companies to ride the wave. It promotes ditching suits in favor of casual office wear, even though they are its mainstay merchandise. It began inviting students to wear "comfortable casual office attire" to its recruitment events.
At one seminar in June, about one-third of the students did not wear the so-called recruit suits, dark-colored business suits for job-hunting university students. One woman wore a flowered dress with a jacket and a man wore khaki cargo pants and a casual white shirt.