《TAIPEI TIMES》 Time zone switch debate resurfaces online

A world time zone map is shown in an undated photograph. Photo: Screen grab from Wikipedia

UNNECESSARY?:While some said that the switch would mean more sunlight exposure for workers, others said the government should promote flexible working hours instead

By Sam Garcia / Staff writer

An online debate has resurfaced on whether Taiwan should switch to the same time zone as Japan, with supporters citing its geographic location and saying that China would have no right to object.

The debate erupted on Threads when users suggested that Taiwan should stop using the same time zone as China, Malaysia and Singapore, GMT+8, and instead switch one hour ahead to the same time zone as Japan and South Korea, GMT+9, which it is geographically closer to.

Under GMT+9 the sun would set later year-round, meaning that people would see sunlight after getting off work even in the winter and feel less weary, users said.

More than half of the world’s countries have time zones that do not align with their geographic longitude, for reasons including sovereignty claims, colonial history, centralized governance, daylight hours and cross-border trade, a user said.

In addition, each country’s time zone is considered a matter of national sovereignty, as there is no global authority that regulates time zones, so each country can set its own time zone according to its needs, they said.

However, others said that it is long working hours that are the cause of burnout and weariness among workers, not the time zone.

Instead, the government should promote flexible or shorter working hours, with optional overtime, as 9am to 6pm is too long for a normal workday, they said.

Many supporters of changing the time zone said Taiwan feels more closely aligned with Japan and that having a different time zone than China would underscore that the two are not subordinate to each other.

Others said there was little reason for Taiwan to share China’s time zone when it does not follow China’s government or market hours.

Taiwan uses GMT+8 largely because the Chinese Nationalist Party （KMT） government brought the system with it when it fled to Taiwan following its defeat by the Chinese Communist Party.

The time zone was called Chungyuan Standard Time and was established in the early days of the Republic of China based on the global standard time for the 120th meridian east longitude.

According to National Archives Administration records, during the Japanese colonial period, Taiwan adopted the same standard time as Japan beginning in 1937, due to Japan’s military needs and its policy of further integrating Taiwan with the Japanese mainland.

After Japan’s defeat in World War II in 1945, it ended the use of Japan’s Central Standard Time in Taiwan and the KMT government incorporated Taiwan into Chungyuan Standard Time, records from Taiwan Historica show.

After Taiwan’s first change of ruling party in 2000, the administration of then-president Chen Shui-bian （陳水扁） renamed Chungyuan Standard Time to National Standard Time.