A Japanese alternative to snow plowing

Indian Defense Review -  In the city of Nagaoka, tucked into Japan’s snow-prone Niigata Prefecture, a decades-old snow removal technique continues to draw attention—not because it’s flashy, but because it works. While much of the Northern Hemisphere relies on heavy plows and endless truckloads of salt, Japan has quietly refined a far less disruptive method, one that is both low-tech and surprisingly efficient.

The system, known locally as shosetsu, uses warm water to melt snow directly on the streets. Small sprinklers embedded in the pavement or mounted along roadside barriers activate during snowfall, sending out steady streams that keep roads wet but ice-free. The goal is not to clear away snow after it’s fallen, but to prevent it from settling and freezing in the first place.