Essays

Environmentalism in classical and modern Japan.

Felix bast

KochiUniversity, 2-5-1,
Kochi 780-8520, Japan.

Environment-related news about Japan pops up in the West ever so often, usually in a very unbalanced and sometimes even sensationalist form. News about how the Japanese have invented a new super-harpoon to kill endangered whales or how Japan's new dam will ruin the country's last free-flowing river are just two examples of the never ending negative news pegging Japan as hopelessly indifferent towards the environment. Living in Japan as a foreigner for the past two and a half years and having been bombarded with Japan’s negative press in the western media, I wish to speak out what I believe; a voice of dissent. Japan is indeed extremely environmentally aware.

Matter of national holidays would reveal some of the Japan’s treasured idiosyncrasies as a nation with great respect for nature. There are no other countries in the world like Japan with a national holiday solely for environmental awareness¹; in fact two -Maritime Day (3rd Monday in July) and Greenery day (May 4). Japan has two more national holidays to affirm this "celebration of nature": Vernal equinox (March 20/21) and Autumnal equinox (September 22/23); something that speaks for itself. Add on, Japan is the only democratic country in the world with no religious national holidays¹, a plain truth attesting that the secular Japan has always weighed environmentalism over its religiosity.

Love and devotion to nature are reflected in many angles of Japanese lifestyle; to begin with, names. No other society in the world has surnames related to nature as much as the Japanese. Some of the most common Japanese surnames such as ishikawa (pebbled river), yamamoto (essence of mountain) and shimizu (pristine water) are in sharp contrast to religious or secular names elsewhere. This distinction is also reflected in Japanese cuisine; an incomparable sea-food culinary featuring raw/unheated foods such as ikizukuri (exotic live sashimi) and fugu (celebrated dish of potentially poisonous pufferfish). Absence of elevated bed or chairs in the Japanese architecture and the cultural importance of seiza (the proper sitting on the floor) are two conclusive examples for the 'down-to-earthness' of the Japanese, when it comes to nature. Contrary to elsewhere, the Japanese live in 'organic homes' that have customarily been built wholly of forest products, with characteristic washitsu - a typical room with tatami (woven stray mats) flooring and shoji (translucent washi paper on wooden frame) - a still thriving architectural style. One might argue the resulting deforestation is equally detrimental to the environment; but given that synthetic substances used extensively in the western-style architecture such as concrete, plaster, paint, ceramic materials etc., are not being used in the traditional Japanese style construction and that timber is a renewable natural source, the eco-friendliness of this typical architecture style deserves wide applause. The geta (wooden footwear) that has been traditionally worn with kimono (national costume of Japan) is still popular and can be seen worn with western outfits in summer. The resurgent fashion of furoshiki (ancient Japanese art of wrapping by cloth) in contrast to plastics for the shopping bags and sensu (fan made of bamboo) for cooling oneself down in summer months further reflect the organic way of contemporary Japanese lifestyle. The Japanese organic paper-making is well-known in which bleaching is carried out by placing the light bark in the river-flow rather than by synthetic chemicals. The resulting virgin paper washi, though expensive, has a plethora of uses like in shodo (calligraphy), origami, ukiyo-e (woodblock prints) and even in everyday objects like cloths, statues and toys. This is what makes Japan singular, this love for things that are organic!

Anyone who comes to Japan to live is sure to be surprised and feel a big burden from strict rules regarding garbage recycling. Many municipalities require inhabitants to recycle all cardboard and paper products. Some go so far to insist that consumers flatten their milk cartons and tie them up for recycling. To my surprise I learned that recycling has been practiced in Japan right from Edo period (1603-1867) although the prime reason was to conserve resources². The concept of vigorous elimination of waste is expressed in the Japanese word mottainai (close in meaning to the English phrase "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Repair"), a catchphrase for 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winning Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai. Maathai, on her first visit to Japan, was impressed by the public environmental awareness and the popularity of reducing things that are mottainai as a moral principle promulgated in mass media. In an interview with NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation), Maathai said that she tried hard to find an equivalent word in other languages that contained the grave nuance of the word mottainai but could not locate one, preferring to adopt the word mottainai and making it famous internationally.

Environmentalism has always been one of the traditional Japanese doctrines -the origins of which can be traced back to the ancient times when Paganism (polytheistic non-anthropocentric belief systems, following “teachings” of nature/earth) prevailed. Regardless of their religious practices, devotion to the Mother Nature was always apparent in those times. It can be presumed that social and cultural seclusion of Japan for a long time had positively contributed to the sustenance of nature worshiping ancient polytheism, unlike many other places where it conceded for anthropocentric and monotheistic religions. The fact that two of the most revered sabbats for Paganism: Vernal (Ostara) and Autumnal (Mabon) equinoxes are observed by state in Japan also makes me think that the repercussions of ancient earth-oriented traditions are expressed in the undercurrents of Japanese culture. Essence of Shinto -the native animistic belief system of Japan -is to be part of nature and to work from within. Shinto taught the ancient Japanese to find 'spirits' of Kami -the providence -in any form of nature: rocks, trees, animals, rivers, mountains, and Great Oceans. By worshiping Kami, the Japanese brought themselves closer in spirit to nature, allowing them to understand its importance. The concept hidden within Japanese word inochi -that can roughly be translated as 'spirit of nature' -echoes that nature is a non-replaceable entity beyond the power of human beings -a classical Shinto dogma of human-nature symbiosis³. Together with Shinto, other East Asian belief systems such as Taoism of China and Buddhism of India also contributed to the cultural environmentalism in Japan. Ancient Taoist paintings depicting humans merely as tiny dots on the sweeping vistas of mountains and valleys suggest how insignificant the human beings are compared to the environment.

This naturally begotten enthusiasm to preserve the environment can be seen in many facets of classic Japanese culture and traditions. Traditional Japanese landscape design featured a prominent garden which is a miniaturized version of the beautiful natural scenery. Many of the ancient Japanese literature suggest that these lush gardens had a wide ambit of shaping the artistic imagery of those times. One of the four greatest ever Japanese poets, Fujiwara no Teika (1162-1241), wrote this finest Waka (Japanese poem); though less renowned, this remains my most favorite spring depiction.

The environmentalism in the Japanese landscape design is still evident in the fact that many Japanese houses have a typical garden complete with miniaturized pond and brook. Preserving the identity of Japan through its gardens and landscapes has always been one of the priorities of Japanese emperors; whose policies helped much to make the country densely forested. Japan is currently world's third most forested nation, only after Brazil and Finland with almost 70% of its total area occupied by natural forests¹.

Japanese environmentalism in the modern times is much integrated into most of the entertainment media, strikingly manga -the Japanese cartoon comic genre. Stereotypical 'manga environmentalism' may have begun with the works of none other than the father of manga himself, Tezuka Osamu, whose Jungle Taitei series (Kimba the White Lion) of 1970s introduced many children to the world of natural wilderness, even today. In his another renowned work "Black Jack", a homonymous medical surgeon is seen charging outrageous consultation fee, for him to buy pristine islands and keep them untouched by human beings. As with other political issues, manga did feature environmental issues of the times it publishes out. For example, in 1974 during the onset of extinction of Japanese wolf (now an extinct species), 'Doraemon' -a manga classic-came out with a series named 'Wolf Family' in which the robotic cat 'Doraemon' and the school boy 'Nobita Nobi' is set about for hunting the wild wolf. To aid their pursuit, Doraemon transforms Nobita into a wolf, and as a wolf, Nobita finds and joins the wolf family and apprehends their hellish problems exerted by human beings. On his return back to human form, Nobita changes his mind and pledges to fight for the wolves with the help of Doraemon. Another closely-related entertainment zone of the Japanese video games had much far-fetched effect on the environmental apprehension of the gamers, with series such as Nitendo's Super Mario Sunshine in which portrayals of castigation can be seen directed against Bowser Jr (Shadow Mario) who pollute pristine island of Delfino. On the other hand, role playing games such as Wild ARMS are built on spiritual foundation and introduce the gamers into Shamanistic environmentalism.

As a large group of nearly-isolated volcanic archipelago spread in the Pacific Ocean, Japan has been historically dependent vastly upon the ocean resources to meet its domestic food demand. Japan is one of the countries with highest per-capita seafood consumption in the world- a statistics often cited as proportionately related to the longevity of the Japanese. But considering the fact that ethnic Icelanders -another typical society with high dependence on oceanic food resources -consume more fish and other seafood than Japanese whilst having a lower life-expectancy compared to the Japanese, remains an unresolved 'Japanese Paradox'. The tradition of consuming seaweeds (more appropriately, sea-plants) in Japan is yet another important factor that needs to be considered for, while addressing issues like health and longevity. Although the great ancient civilizations in the West such as Greek and Rome steadfastly ignored sea-plants as a food, ancient Japanese depended so much on them such that taxation on sea-plants can be seen⁵ in civil code Taiho-ritsuryo of AD 701. Sea-plants, that are consumed in Japan for thousands of years like nori (Porphyra), wakame (Undaria), kombu (Laminaria), and hitoegusa (Monostroma), contain optimum levels of anti-oxidants and vitamins that aid in development of stalwart immune system. Sea-plant cultivation and processing industries are so well established such that Japan has always ranked first in the total sea-plant production and per-capita consumption in the world. With many of the current environmental perceptions are evolving fast away from biased and overly exaggerated importance of land plants to the utmost significance of the sea-plants in its contributions to the 'global carbon sink' and total oxygen production⁶, this ancient Japanese wisdom of cultivating and consuming sea-plants is noteworthy.

Although the controversial issue of whaling in Japan has often been a subject of heated political dispute between pro- and anti-whaling environmental groups, one thing is mutually agreed upon; Japan has had a long history of whaling. The oldest surviving book in Japan that was written in AD 680, Kojiki, mentions that the whale meat was part of the daily menu of emperor Go-Jimmu. Whale meat, along with soybeans, was the sole source of protein for the Japanese for a long time until the Meiji Era (1868-1912) when the emperor opened gates of Japan to the import of dairy products and (terrestrial) animal meat. Perhaps the biggest faux pas the Japanese decision makers have done so far concerning the whaling controversy is in 1982, when they agreed to back International Whaling Commission (IWC) moratorium on commercial whaling after an initial defiance. To correct that Freudian slip, what Japan did later was the so called "commercial whaling in research disguise" policy that helped nothing but cultivating a galore of foes, famous British scientific journal Nature say⁷. Japan should, instead, convince the IWC members that they, like Norway and Iceland, have traditionally depended on marine resources for their diet, in the same way as Europeans depended on livestock farming and that whale meat is an indispensable part of Japanese cuisine as much as kangaroo meat for Australians and horse meat for Chinese. There has been a surge of reports recently in western media questioning traditional and religious significance of whaling in Japan. For example, BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) ran a story entitled "Temples of Whale" ⁸, in which Richard Black argues that vegetarianism is a fundamental principle in Buddhism and hence (Buddhist state) Japan's claims that whaling is part of its traditions are rather illegitimate. Although Richard's position seems initially plausible as Buddhism has co-existed with Shinto for well over a millennium and it is very difficult to untangle Shinto and Buddhist beliefs, annalists teach us that the Japanese originally followed "Shrine Shinto" and Buddhism arrived later through the Silk Road. Shinto, which is based upon love for nature and its sustainable utilization, does not impose to exercise vegetarianism conceivably because of the lack of any prejudice to the animals. The spirit, Kami, is present in plants, animals, and non living things alike and hence wisdom lies in the endurable utilization of nature, NOT on its squandering. Scientific issues associated with whaling, such as its ecological sustainability and safety are indeed worth considering, although it requires further research to substantiate. At the same time, ethical issues associated with slow death of harpooned whales and its cetacean intelligence are contingent upon the individual perceptions. In the light of a major international research predicting that there would be nothing left in world's oceans by the end of this century if current trends continue⁹, we could foresee that along with whales, these issues will also disappear for ever. In an optimistic view, sturdy earth-including its vast oceans- can recover from just about any ravage we do to it, given enough time. But for our future generations who will miss out on having sustainable fisheries and balanced ecosystem, the wreckage may be unfathomable.

With essentially no domestic production of petroleum, Japan has had little choice but to design state-of-the-art, energy efficient technologies that in turn made them the most energy-efficient developed country in the world, according to the renowned American newspaper New York Times¹⁰. In 2006 academy award winning environmental documentary "An Inconvenient Truth", former US Vice-President Al Gore praises Japanese automakers as the environmentally-friendliest. It was only recently that "Low Emission Vehicles" including hybrid cars hit US streets, with Japanese models such as Toyota's Prius and Honda's Civic Hybrid getting hugely popular¹¹, while these already accounted for almost 21% of all automobiles in Japan¹². Japanese electronic gadgets and gizmos, traditionally known for its performance and endurance, now put energy efficiency as one of its main priority. For example, Canon's "EOS Digital Rebel-XT" digital camera that uses 35% less power than the company's previous models¹³ has become the most popular digital camera in the famous online photography community Flickr¹⁴, despite a price tag of $699 and a variety of less costly options in the market. Tokyo, world's most populous metropolitan area¹, is getting closer to the highest energy-efficient urban region with "intelligent systems" seen everywhere from thousands of vending machines to public lights and escalators, that automatically turn off when not in use. Japan's dependency on fossil fuels has been decreasing dramatically by diversifying its power sources over the years and by cultivating culture of energy conservation among the public. Year 2005 saw environmental campaigns receiving huge nationwide attention with ad-blitz such as Junichiro Koizumi's "Cool Biz"- that led companies including Toyota, Sharp, Isuzu and Hitachi asking everyone from chairmen down to salary men to strip off their much-loved ties and jackets in summer, and media-born "Warm Biz" - though not hugely popular, encouraging employees to wear heavy turtle-neck and sweaters at work in winter. The ministry estimated that the "Cool Biz" campaign alone resulted in a reduction of 460,000-ton CO2 emission in a month. The Cool Biz concept seems to have taken a permanent root in Japanese society that led to countries such as United Kingdom and South Korea to introduce their own Cool Biz campaigns since 2006.

News tells us that Japan is hardly perfect as an ecologically cautious nation; it is indeed true to a certain degree as they still struggle hard to meet obligations set in Kyoto Protocol of 1997 to reduce green house gases by 6% ¹⁵. To some extent that is because Japan had already been very energy efficient when the protocol was signed and targets were set. Japan is not unique in its contribution to the environmental issues like carbon surge, over-fishing, toxic dumping and so on as seen elsewhere, but the western perceptions of Japan as an anti-environmental nation -probably on account of the much publicized whaling controversy -needs to be changed. The profound Japanese traditional wisdom taught me that the concept of environmentalism is all about being dynamic; living in harmony with nature and its "wise-use". As long as the environmentalists are campaigners of "non-use" and confront any change to the natural world, their clamor will not be heard by the inochi, of everything.

Cited references

1. The World Fact Book, United States Central Intelligence Agency, 2007
2. Japan's sustainable society in the Edo period, Japan, March 2003
3. Masahiro Morioka, "The concept of Inochi", Japan Review Vol.2 pp 83-115, 1991
4. McAuley T.E, The University of Sheffield [United Kingdom] online repository of waka at URL: http://www.temcauley.staff.shef.ac.uk/waka1160.shtml Accessed on 2 June 2007
5. Sansom, George, 'A History of Japan to 1334', StanfordUniversity Press, 1958
6. Bast ,Felix, "The most important thing, to sustain life",BBC at URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A24050170 Accessed on 23 June 2007
7. Editorial, Nature 446, p2, 28 Feb 2007
8. Black, Richard., Temples of Whale, BBC at URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6667797.stm Accessed on 5 June 2007
9. Boris Worm, Science Vol. 314. No. 5800, pp.787-790, 3 November 2006
10. Martin Fackler, "The land of rising conservation", The New York Times, 6 January 2007
11. 'Japanese carmakers tops in environmental group's report', Boston Herald, Tuesday, 3 April 2007
12. Organization for Promotion of Low emission Vehicles at URL: http://www.levo.or.jp Accessed on 22 June 2007
13. Canon Inc., Product description at URL: http://www.canon.com/environment/products/p01.html Accessed on 21 June 2007
14. Yahoo-Flickr Camera popularity chart at URL: http://flickr.com/cameras Accessed on 20 June 2007
15. Joseph Coleman, "Japan struggles to meet Kyoto goals", Washington Post, 5 June, 2007 Bottom of Form