Quote Originally Posted by sabro View Post
I would imagine that some Japanese people care deeply about nature and a lot of others don't.
This is obvious, like in any other country. What I ask you in this thread is to make the mental calculation to get the average (addition of all the individuals divided by the total population) and see if that average is higher than all other countries on earth. If only one country, even a tiny one like Luxembourg, has a higher average of people who care about nature, then the answer to the thread question is "no" (which seems so obvious to me that I am surprised some people answered the opposite). Even if Japan ranks in the top 10 among 230 countries on earth, it doesn't matter, as it isn't first as some Japanese I have met have claimed.
Japan has a long tradition of art, visual and performing arts, dedicated to nature. The influence of Budhism and the ancient anamistic traditions affect spiritual and aesthetic values. They have as a culture perfected the small garden and ways of bringing bits of nature into the urban environment. Bonsai, the tea garden, the koi pond, Zen gardens of sand and stone... the concept of Wabi Sabi... all point to some deep appreciation of nature.
This is the old culture of Japan, which has mainly disappeared for most of the modern population (well as much as the ancient, medieval, renaissance or 17th to 19th century cultures in Europe are not a reflection of modern Europe).
Japan is also has one of the strongest anti-nuclear movements on the planet.
This may be true for nuclear weapons, but they have good reason for that as the only country who was victim of the A-bomb. As for nuclear energy itself, the Japanese government is a fervent supporter of it. There are currently 53 operating nuclear power plants in Japan, against 17 in Germany, 23 in the UK, 9 in Spain or 0 in Italy. Only France has a similar number.
It is also a pioneer in the alternative fuels and hybrid autos (I own a Honda Insight).
True for car makers, but biofuel isn't available for cars in service stations like in Sweden or some other European countries, is it ?
Recycling and green energy is on the rise.
Recycling rules vary a lot among municipalities in Japan. For instance my ward in Tokyo didn't have a recycling category for batteries (I did ask the townhall and check their website), which is unbelievable here in Belgium. Japan is also one of the few developed countries that still incinerate most of its non-recyclable waste, rather than bury it. This is extremely noxious to public health because of all the toxic emissions (dioxin...) and causes lots of cancers.
Greenpeace in Japan has 15 full time staff and 4500 members.
See, this is ridiculously low for a country of 127,000,000 people. The London office alone has 90 full-time staff. Greenpeace has 250,000 in the USA (for about twice the population of Japan) and 2.5 million members in 40 countries worldwide (mostly in Europe).
Friends of Earth Japan has been around for twenty six years.
The WWF, founded in Switzerland, has been around for 45 years. Greenpeace, founded in Canada and now headquartered in Amsterdam, has been around for 35 years. Have a look at this list of environmental organizations, mosly in Western countries. If you know well Japanese ones, feel free to add them as none of them are listed.
In spite of this, for a country of it's size and wealth there seems to be a general disregard for nature, or at least that is the perception I get... and the conservation and anti-polution values seem to be generally disregarded or considered of secondary importance.
We agree here.