Japan launches plan for environment-friendly living

30 May, 2007: Japan will soon launch a new environment strategy that envisages coexisting with nature and contributing to global development with technologies that help protect the environment and save energy.

According to Japanese government officials, the new strategy would be endorsed in May 2007 itself as a part of Japan’s efforts to host an international conference in 2010 for signatory states of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

The policy package, named the Environment-oriented Strategy for the 21st Century, was drafted by the Central Environment Council, a government advisory panel.

The package proposes, among other things, to preserve biological diversity and implement the ‘Satoyama Initiative’ – a Japanese understanding of the coexistence between human beings and nature, which has helped the Japanese to utilise nature and coexist with it.

In Japan, ‘satoyama’ means hills and forests deeply linked to human life that are located near communities and once provided fuel wood and wild vegetables for human consumption.

The environment strategy proposes promoting Japan’s satoyama-based lifestyle to the rest of the world to preserve a healthy and rich natural environment.

In fact, satoyama areas are disappearing in Japan mainly thanks to the use of oil for energy and the development of land for housing. In the process, some species are facing extinction.

Many groups have been campaigning across Japan to preserve satoyama areas as locations for interaction between human beings and nature.

The climate strategy notes that, while the earth faces global warming, destruction of ecological systems and the waste of natural resources, preserving the global environment is the biggest issue faced by human beings in the 21st century and is closely linked with human security problems.

Japan will aim to become a “graceful, environment-oriented country” which will coexist with nature and use its environmental and energy technologies to contribute to the development of the world, according to the draft of the strategy.

The package includes a plan to halve global greenhouse gas emissions from the current levels by 2050. To achieve this goal, Japan proposes to develop innovative technologies, transform human lifestyle, and build compact towns as a first step to create a “low-carbon society.”

The strategy also calls for spreading a Japanese version of a recycling society to the rest of Asia, as Japan ranks at the top of the world in reducing, recycling and reusing waste.