thomas malloy wrote:
Amazing story Jed. Thank you for sharing it. Would it be fair to say that they are attempting to make a Japanese garden out of the country?
They are attempting to convert the entire country into an ecological wasteland. Not just attempting; they are succeeding on an unprecedented scale. They use more concrete than the US does, in an area the size of California. Most of the concrete is spread outdoors in places where it will smother the land, rivers and oceans, cause catastrophic rain run-off, cut off the oxygen supply in the rivers (by preventing circulation and tidal flow). They kill off plants, fish, insects and animal for miles around. There are no fireflies. Fireflies need clean, fresh water; you can gauge the ecological health of local streams by their presence or absence. They have become so rare in Japanese cities and towns that some little kids I knew never saw one until they came to the U.S., and did not know what they were.
The only purpose is to enrich corrupt construction companies and politicians. As I say they have destroyed half the coastline, about 40% of the forests, and just about every river and stream in the country. I know a village miles from nowhere in Yamaguchi with a large, pristine stream that used have enough fish and wildlife the local farmer made a full-time living harvesting the fish and eels. The government came in 30 years ago and completely destroyed the stream, replacing it with a concrete conduit. There are no fish left. The current is much too swift and there is no sand or rocks. Although, as it happens, there has been no maintenance and the concrete is breaking up, and I have seen some sand and signs of life. Ostensibly, the reason they did this was to prevent erosion, but that is nonsense because the stream has been there for thousands of years without eroding, and as I said it is miles away from anyone who might be bothered by erosions or landslides.
This horrible situation is described in the book Kerr, A., Dogs and Demons: Tales from the Dark Side of Modern Japan. 2001: Hill and Wang.
I thought that they had more of a reverence for the natural environment.
That is a myth. Of course many Japanese people do revere nature, and the Edo period forest conservation policies were so good they are still having a beneficial effect. But overall, the national and corporate polices since the late 19th century and especially since WWII have caused appalling devastation.
I remember back in the '70's it appeared that the Japanese model of picking emerging technologies, and then making investments of public money was going to kick our butts, but they are in worse shape then we are.
In some ways they are in worse shape and always have been. On the other hand, Toyota is now bigger than GM, and they sell hundreds of thousands of hybrid automobiles, whereas GM does not sell a single one.
Japan is big country and a complex society. Anyone who has lived there knows it is dysfunctional in many ways, but that is true of any society. The US certainly has severe problems with health care, education, gun control and other issues.
- Jed
