Do the Japanese really love nature more than all other people ?

[Maciamo]

You mentioned you had some figures for the houses with gardens. I had a quick look and couldn't see them in the posts. It would be interesting to see them. If I missed them perhaps you could point me in the right direction.

I found that when I was in Japan. I am pretty sure it was somewhere here, but I cannot find the right table anymore. Anyway, how many houses with garden/yard have you seen in Tokyo ? Personally, none.

Also it would be useful to see the number of zoos and botanical gardens in Japan and the figures on vegetarianism, if possible.

Phew. Do you think I can find all the links like that. Why don't you look and try to confirm or deny my claims. Here is a list of botanical gardens in Japan. Feel free to compare the number and size with Western countries, and make the per capita ratio. The only botanic garden in Tokyo (23 wards) is Koishikawa Shokubutsuen (the one of Tokyo University). It is ridiculously tiny (16 ha) and only has 4,000 species of plants. There are two botanic gardens in Brussels, the biggest of which is 92 ha wide and has 18,000 species of plants (so about 5x bigger in size and variety than that of the world-famous Tokyo University).

Be it for the zoological gardens (list here), it also depends what you define as such. Japanese language does not clearly distinguish between zoos, animal parks, safari parks, bird parks, animal theme parks, and sometimes even natural/animal reserves. I have seen some of the so-called 動物園 in Japan and they do not deserve more the appellation of zoo than some farms. It's always good to compare the best a country has to offer, so as to compare the top. I have been to Ueno Zoo, which is Japan's first and most famous zoo, and it wasn't very impressive (well, it has pandas, which is partly why it is famous). It has only 422 species and 2,600 animals, against 950 species and over 5,000 animals for the Antwerp Zoo in my ridiculously tiny country (so tiny that many Japanese and Americans cannot place it on a map of Europe).

It's sad to have to compare Tokyo to Brussels, or Japan to Belgium, and still have the latter win...

As for vegetarianism, I mean by that not eating any meat (including fish and seafood), even if it is not visible (e.g. in sauce or soup). What interest us here is not to kill animals, so eggs and milk are fine, but animal fat is not, as it requires to kill the animal. Anyone who has lived or travelled in Japan knows that it is extremely hard to find Japanese food matching those criteria. My sister is a vegetarian (because she doesn't want to kill animals), and she came twice to Japan (about 3 weeks each time). We travelled through half of the country, and I can tell you that it was a p.i.t.a. to find something else than bread, pastries, pasta and Indian food for her to eat. Vegetarian Japanese food is mostly restricted to Buddhist cuisine (rare outside Kyoto), or a few dishes like soba and vegetable tempura. Anthing else has meat in it. Japan is clearly not a vegetarian-friendly country. In restaurants they were often surprised at the request to serve a dish without meat because no Japanese ever ask them (we were seen as the difficult gaijin ), while in Europe they are so used to it that most restaurant now have at least a few vegetarian dishes or will gladly cook a special dish without meat. I remember the time we asked in a "omu-rice" restaurant chain if we could have a dish without bacon mixed with the rice for my sister who is a vegetarian. The waitress asked the chef, and after 10min of "negotiation" she came back telling us that it was impossible because the chef didn't want to serve a dish that didn't taste the way he wanted. We were 4 people, and we had to leave to find another restaurant, just because they couldn't accomodate a vegetarian. We had other similar experiences elsewhere too.

Another thing that would be useful to see is your figures for the number of nature shows on Japanese TV. I saw your post about the French speaking channels and nature programmes but unless there is a comparison with Japanese TV, it holds less value in the argument.

I suppose that anybody really interested on this forum knows Japanese TV programmes... If not, I invite you to check this online TV guide. Keep me informed on your findings.

Lastly, I'm not totally convinced of the strength of 'the absence of an elected Green Party' as one of your arguments. You even mention yourself that the same could be said of the US and other European countries.

The USA is not really an example in environmental protection. They even refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol. Here is more info on Green Parties around the world. You will see that the Greens are one of the major parties at the European Parliament. There are in fact two main Green Parties, one of which is the 4th biggest at the parlaiment out of a good dozen of parties. All the Greens got 6.5% of the votes Europe-wide at the 2004 election. They are especially strong in Scandinavia, Germany and Belgium. In Belgium, for instance, the Green Party is a ruling coalition party in many levels of government (municipality, province, region, country), and even the majority party in a few municipalities.

An elected Green party says more about the political and state funding system in the country than it does about normal everyday people's likes or dislikes.

I disagree. In fact, I think there is a Green Party in Japan, but nobody has ever elected them. If it must take money and startling campaigns for people to care about nature, then it is a sign of lack of general concern by the population.