No Green Party at the Japanese Parliament means a lot

[Hiroshi66]

Don't the Social Democrat and Communist parties call themselves "ecologically-concious" political parties?

[Maciamo]

Don't the Social Democrat and Communist parties call themselves "ecologically-concious" political parties?

First I don't know why you assimilate so different parties as Social Democrat and Communist. But the industry-crazy Communists are certainly among the least ecologically-concious party in world history. Just look at Russia and China during the Communist period. Even a special "party for the destruction of the envrironment" could not have done a better job.

As for the Socialists, in Europe they tend to be ecologically-concious, but so are other parties.

[fugue]

First I don't know why you assimilate so different parties as Social Democrat and Communist. But the industry-crazy Communists are certainly among the least ecologically-concious party in world history. Just look at Russia and China during the Communist period. Even a special "party for the destruction of the envrironment" could not have done a better job. As for the Socialists, in Europe they tend to be ecologically-concious, but so are other parties.

Please don't tell me that you have zero understanding of those prominent leftist parties in Japan and yet were so quick to judge negatively the performance of the entire nation in this issue.

[Maciamo]

Please don't tell me that you have zero understanding of those prominent leftist parties in Japan and yet were so quick to judge negatively the performance of the entire nation in this issue.

What are you referring to ? I was talking about the difference between socialism and communism in general (in the world).

[fugue]

What are you referring to ? I was talking about the difference between socialism and communism in general (in the world).

Why are you all of a sudden talking about socialism and communism in general anyway? Does this have anything to do with the underachievement of those leftist parties in Japan regarding environmental issues if at all?

[Maciamo]

Why are you all of a sudden talking about socialism and communism in general anyway? Does this have anything to do with the underachievement of those leftist parties in Japan regarding environmental issues if at all?

It doesn't matter whether the leftist parties in Japan are better inclined toward the environment than other parties, because in Europe, almost any major party, be it left, center or right, has at least as much concern for the environment than the most environmentalist Japanese party with seats at the Parliament. For example, there is no significant green party in the UK either, but the British are among the most environment-concious and aninal loving (and not just dogs like in Japan) people in the world. The British did not just invent the Society for the Protection of Animal Rights, Royal Society For The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (which would criticize many selfish Japanese pet owner whose dogs, cats, rabbits of whatever hardly ever go out) or dozens of similar organizations (brief listing here), they do have plenty of laws in this regard too, even without any green party at the UK Parliament. If you compare a bit the laws regarding the protection of the environment i Europe (eg. UK's Environmental Protection Act or the EU's Environment programme) with what exists in Japan, you can only be startled at the difference. Don't just read the introduction, but try to go into details, point by point to understand what I mean. And Japan has already made enormous progress in the last 10-20 years. Before that it was more like China now.

For example, Japan does recycle its wastes, but the separation is very simple (burnable, non-burnable, bottles). I have been used to a seprartion like :
1) organic waste
2) papers
3) recyclable plastics
4) other plastics
5) glass
6) recyclable metals (eg. tins, cans)
7) other metals, electronics, etc.
8) toxic wastes (eg. batteries)

I know this is how wastes are divided in a country like Belgium ,which has been criticized within the EU as the most unecological EU country. That means other countries do at least as good. But Japan's division of wastes is very superficial. The Lonely Planet Guidebook of Belgium describes it as a densely populated country where nature almost doesn't exist anymore, and mention that "when Belgians think about nature, they think about France, Italy, the USA or Australia, but not Belgium". I have lived for years in Belgium, but I can tell you that the environmental destruction of Japan is much, much worse that anything I have seen in Belgium. In comparison Belgium is an oasis of nature (see why below), even with the same density of population as Japan, and an industrial revolution that started 100 years earlier than Japan.

Have you ever read the book Dogs & Demons by Alex Kerr ? You will understand what I mean by terrible lack of care for the environment once you have read it. In Japan, all major rivers are damned and concreted, almost any hill or mountain that is not dozens of km away from a residential area (even a bunch of houses) has been reinforced by concrete, so that when you take a drive around Japan, you'd think all the country was made of concrete. The same applies to the coastline.

That's just for the esthetic issues. What really matters is all the toxic waste deposited in fields that are then sold as agricultural land (Kerr cites several reliable sources), or industrial waste thrown directly in rivers so that local people get extremely painful and debilitating diseases (eg. "Itai-itai-byo", Minamata Disease, etc.). There is a whole chapter in Dogs & Demons if you are interested.

Another serious health/ecology concern in Japan are incinerators. Everybody knows that burning rubbish create emission of extremely toxic and carcerigenic dioxin, but there are dozens of such incinerators in Tokyo, even in the middle of residential areas. Kerr cites many cases of "high cancer rates" in such neighbourhoods. But instead of phasing them out, the Japanese government continues to build new ones, and again in residential areas, even amidst strong protests from locals (there was a famous case in Kyoto a few years ago, where the government started the construction at night because of protestors during day-time !).

I will again compare Japan to Belgium, as Belgium was called the worst country in terms of ecologicy in the EU. Japan has had 3, including 2 deadly nuclear plant "accidents" in the last 5 years. Belgium, which has more nuclear plants per sq. km than probably any other country in the world (7 reactors for on a land area 13x smaller than Japan, while Japan has 19 reactors), has never had any to the best of my knowledge. Have look at the history of major nuclear incidents ; it does mention the Tokaimura accident of 1999, and Mihama in 2004, but nothing for anywhere in Belgium). There might have been slight problems in Belgium, but no radiation. I also found this list, with hundreds of cases worldwide. In Japan, it seems that there were not only repeated accidents in Tokaimura (1979, 1986, 1999) and Mihama (1975, 1991, 2004), but also in Sendai (twice in 1991), Fukui (1991), Fukushima (1985, 1993) and Monju (1995) among events from the last 30 years.

[fugue]

It doesn't matter whether the leftist parties in Japan are better inclined toward the environment than other parties, because in Europe, almost any major party, be it left, center or right, has at least as much concern for the environment than the most environmentalist Japanese party with seats at the Parliament.... For example, there is no significant green party in the UK either....

(1) Exactly what is this "most environmentalist Japanese party" you are talking about here, (2) exactly what kind of environmental policy agenda they are advancing, and (3) exactly what's lacking in their concern for the environment?

The British did not just invent the Society for the Protection of Animal Rights....

Again, exactly what organization of animal rights in Japan are you talking about? Or are you implying that there exist zero animal rights activists in Japan? If not, how many orgs exists in Japan, what are the leading orgs, what have they (and the government) achieved, and exactly how poor is their performance compared to that of the British and the rest of the world?

For example, Japan does recycle its wastes, but the separation is very simple (burnable, non-burnable, bottles).

What exactly is this "Japan" you are talking about? Waste management is mostly left to the discretion of each local municipality under Wastes Disposal and Public Cleaning Law (廃棄物の処理及び清掃に関する法律). In Yamagata waste is sorted into 8 categories, 9 in Utsumnomiya, 12 in Tsu, 15 in Kochi, 12 in Saga, 23 in Minamata, 14 in Miyazaki, 32 in Hekinan among others (cf. http://www.ktv.co.jp/ARUARU/search/arugomi/gomi1.htm). Recyclable waste categories in the city of Hekinan include aluminium cans, steal cans, plastic bottles, sake bottles (glass), beer bottles, colorless bottles, brown bottles, blue and green bottles, black bottles, cigar lighters, polystyrene, hard plastic, newspaper and magazines, clothes, fluorescent bulb, dry batteries, ceramics, glass (cf. http://www.katch.ne.jp/~hiro32/recy/recy002.htm). At national level, Law for Promotion of Sorted Collection and Recycling of Containers and Packaging (容器包装リサイクル法 effective 1997) specifies 8 recyclable categories: glass, plastic bottles, paper containers, steal cans, aluminium cans, paper packs, cardboard, the first four of which are mandatory to recycle.