Green Revolution: Perspectives from Japan

Today I am would like to take the opportunity to explore the globalization of the environmentalist movement and how this is having effects upon Japan’s own green consciousness. While I was in Japan, I noticed that Japan is in many ways greener than Europe, especially in the areas of public transportation, energy conservation, and waste management. However, most of those were government directed initiatives and the strong NGO environmental movement seemed to be lacking in comparison to the U.S. and Europe. The Japanese environmental movement began around the time of the oil shock in the late 1970’s. In comparison to American and European environmental movements that seem to focus on a “saving the planet” mentality, in Japan, environmentalism has always had a strong nationalist origin. Since Japan has no fossil fuels of its own, the government has worked towards energy conservation and efficiency for the purpose of national and economic security. Therefore, I decided to explore the blogosphere and investigate ways in which globalization is changing the Japanese environmental movement and how Japan’s own environmental policy is influencing other nations in their pursuit of energy independence and environmental harmony. The first article I would like to discuss is titled. “Japan as a Model For China’s Green Revolution”, and is hosted on The Green Leap Forward, a blog about environmentalism in China. The second blog I chose was one of those on my link roll, Trends in Japan. A recent article on Trends in Japan focuses on a recent fashion show and how collaboration with an environmental NGO produced some interesting results. The links to both comments are hyperlinked below, and additionally I have provided my two comments for each site.

"Japan as a Model for China's Green Revolution?"

Julian, I really enjoyed you post China’s current environmental situation, and how Japan can provide a model for China to emulate as it moves forward with environment policy. Despite China’s rapid growth, I think there is a lot of room for China to control its CO2 output while its economy develops. Additionally, I think Japan provides a good example of how a Green Revolution and economic development are not mutually exclusive. As your article stated, Japan’s own move into more energy efficient production and production of energy efficient products helped to move its economy into a high-tech, lucrative direction. Even now, many of the companies that managed to produce these energy efficient products in the 1970’s Oil Shock are the most competitive companies from Japan, such as Honda, Toyota, Sharp, etc. Like Japan in the 1970’s, China seems to be a critical junction in the development of its economy away from a labor intensive one to a capital -intensive economy that produces high-tech products. The recent scandals with tainted food products and product defects have hurt China’s reputation globally. A move into “green products” and a “green economy” has the potential to give China’s manufacturers a better reputation amongst the globes consumers, particularly those in the developed world. This would allow China to avoid any sort of consumer backlash against its products. In your article, you express a fear that a move into high-tech manufacturing will simply move the production of goods from China to other nations such as Vietnam and Indonesia. However, greater national energy, such as that achieved by Japan, would help to control the cost of energy for production helping China to produce energy at cheaper rates than its competitors. With cheaper energy, China could remain competitive even in the manufacture of low-end goods vis-à-vis developing countries for some time to come. Japan’s state driven approach to environmental regulation and energy conservation will be easier for China to implement than a more NGO driven movement, given China’s lack of a functioning democratic process. If the Chinese government sees environmentalism as being equal to energy independence, it will be much more likely to pursue significant reforms in that area. So I’d like to thank for your timely article on this important issue.

"Tokyo Girls Collection Gets Green"

Rebecca, I enjoyed your timely article on Tokyo Girls Collection’s attempt to go green. I appreciate how you attempted to analyze what aspects of the show were successful and innovative in comparison to the more half-hearted aspects such as the “eco bag”. I think the use of model statements on how they reduce their own carbon footprints or work to live a more environmentally conscious existence is particularly important. The influence celebrities have over fashion, in both Japan and abroad, is undeniable since they are the source of many new trends. The use of celebrities as a source of environmentally conscious lifestyle is particularly important in the age of mass global media. The “My Challenge” pledges by the models to reduce their carbon output by 1k a day added a degree of legitimacy that the statements would have otherwise lacked.

While I thoroughly enjoyed your post, I found myself hoping that you discussed the importance of the issue at hand and what effects you thought I might have for the Japanese environmentalist movement as a whole. I felt that they entry was too much of just a brief summary of events, but would gain much from a more detailed analysis. Just added a few sentences of commentary would have filled out the article a bit more and made it more engaging for the reader. I understand that the purpose of Trends of Japan may be to present a more news-like reporting of events, however, given the lack of information about Japan related trends online, an occasional discussion of the topic would create a more engaging blog. I look forward to reading your entries in the future.