木村：政府は、夏時間の導入を考えているようですね。
役人：ええ、しかし、子供や老人への影響を考えると痛しかゆしでしてね。
Itashi-kayushi
Kimura: Seifu wa natsu-jikan no doonyuu wo kangaete iru yoo desu ne.
Yakunin: Ee, shikashi, kodomo ya roojin e no eikyoo wo kangaeru to itashi-kayushi deshite ne.
Kimura: I gather that the government is considering introducing daylight saving time.
Government official: Yes, but we're still in a dilemma over what to do about the influence it could have on children and elderly people.
Itashi-kayushi describes a situation in which people are undecided about a certain course of action because they foresee both its positive and negative sides. The expression derives its meaning from the fact that when you are bitten by a mosquito. If you scratch the bite, it hurts (itai). But if you don't, it itches (kayui).
There has been an ongoing debate over whether or not Japan should introduce daylight saving time. In the proposed system, we have to put our clocks forward one hour for the period from April and to the end of September. There are 73 countries in the world that follow the system-most of them in Europe. Advocates say if it were introduced into Japan, it would not only save an estimated 700,000 kiloliters of crude oil, but also help to expand our domestic market by \1 trillion as a result of increased leisure time.
Opponents, however, argue that the introduction would throw the transportation system into a state of confusion. An extra hour, they continue, may not translate into added leisure time as intended, but would instead end up becoming another hour of overtime, thus creating more work.
Itashi-kayushi de doo shite yoi ka wakaranai (Ifs a real dilemma; I don't know what the best thing to do is) seems to be the honest feeling of many people on the matter. While some sports lovers welcome the move because they would be able to have more time to play
sports, farmers worry that shifting everything an hour forward would upset the natural rhythms of the animals they keep.
Kono seisaku ni wa hantai iken mo oku, seifu to shite mo itashi-kayushi desu. (Opinions are so sharply divided over the policy that even the government is of two minds about it.) Yoi men mo, warui men mo aru. Itashi-kayushi desu ne.(There are merits and demerits - its a real dilemma.)
The government appears to set its mind on starting the system by 1996 at the latest. I wonder how things will turn out. I hear that people in France are considering scrapping the system because they say day-light saving time affects the physical condition of children and the elderly negatively.
The writer is a professor at Yokohama National University.
Asahi Evening News Septermber 11, 1994