Kurashi - News From Japan

I went to the large demonstration today at Hibiya in central Tokyo and in the warm, sunny weather, some 10,000 people showed up for the parade to surround the Parliament Building (Diet) - Japan's Palace of Westminster or Capitol Hill... Update : Kyodo (J) has the number of participants today as 14,000. The event was also billed as the "Democracy Convention 2015" in English. If you have ever been to a large demonstration elsewhere, prepare yourself for the utter control here in Japan. Police and riot vans are everywhere, but as long as things go smoothly, like today, you can bring your baby stroller and your grandma... The organizers are committed to peaceful protests and so be it. But, that may not be the way Japan's Public Security Intelligence Agency sees things, according to Eric Johnston in The Japan Times: Security blanket: Should Japan beef up its anti-terrorism measures? Great coalition of hundreds of groups for solidarity with Okinawa an...

There is a Japanese expression that I was reminded of at the beginning of the year, which I liked. 傍目八目 or 岡目八目 (oka-me-hachi-moku) My dictionaries give me "Bystander's vantage point" or something related to watching a game of go, and as such, it is much easier to see the game unfolding some eight steps ahead, as it where. "Observing objectively" comes some way to explain the expression, although that is neither here nor there. I blog here at Kurashi with some ideas of what I like and what I do not like. I am obviously just a bystander, but after some time in Japan, I am also a player. I do wish the best to all people, and try to put my finger on what are the right steps to take, as we all plod ahead. So when I see news that Japan is about to enter a trade agreement that gives no regard to this country's amazing agricultural heritage, just for a few people to export more cars, and whatever, I find that so shortsighted. When I see the mass media pla...

Get the latest Japanese newsletter from Consumers Union of Japan, in Japanese . CUJ was founded back in 1969 and has been an independent voice for a long time. Do check out the CUJ history, in English . I remember how proud we were when we got the NPO legislation status. Our main focus has been on the UN Convention of Biological Diversity, and the WTO, and the TPP. We also care about food labels and other cases of consumer fraud. Consumers Union of Japan (CUJ) is a politically and financially independent non-governmental organization (NGO). CUJ is funded by membership fees, sales of its publications and donations. CUJ was founded in April 1969 as Japan's first nationwide grassroots consumer organization. It was officially certified as a non-profit organization on May 1, 2006 by the new Japanese NPO legislation. NPO, NGO... these are the ways the government tries to keep people at bay. But Consumers Union of Japan and its many campaigns have managed to stay independent ov...

Soil & Peace Festival 2013 There will be a Soil & Peace Festival in Hibiya Park, Tokyo on Sunday October 20, 2013. Starting at 10:00 hundreds of farmers and activists and artists will hold a great event until the evening. A great opportunity to meet your favourite NGOs and learn more about organic food, anti-nuclear campaigns and the future of Japan. Look forward to lots of inspiration! Music by Katou Tokiko and many others throughout the day, starting with a taiko performance by Gocco . Website with more info (J) here   International Film Festival on Organic Farming The 7th organic film festival will be held in Tokyo on November 23-24, 2013. This will be a great opportunity to catch up with recent trends and watch documentaries from Japan and abroad. The theme this year is “Holding on to the Soil” to refelct the hardships many farmers are experiencing, with special focus on Okinawa and Fukushima. Location: Hosei Unive...

Surprise, surprise. Brutus goes organic and introduces farms in Denmark and Canada that do without agro-chemicals, be it herbicides or pesticides or any other man-made poison. This is a glossy Magazine House men's style magazine with a long history here, that usually carries ads for expensive watches and hand-made leather shoes, so I was glad to see they devote quite some space to Yoshikazu Kawaguchi , a great guy in Nara I met some time ago, who practices natural farming in the tradition of Masanobu Fukuoka (and many others in the old days). Et tu, Brutus , har har. Has it come to this? When more people care about food and the environment, I guess it will ultimately become trendy even among the people with more money than sense. Hope it is not another case of too little, too late. I like the 26 summer salad recipes, yummy. I'll label this as "progress" nevertheless. Brutus # 759 (J)

Monday next week of course a very solemn date for all of us here in Japan, as it marks two years since the massive earthquake and tsunami that hit Tohoku, northeast of Tokyo. Polls in the news this week indicate that a lot of people are still suffering and in doubt how to carry on. The Tohoku region, and Fukushima prefecture, has such a long history. It is not easy to abandon one's roots and one's hometown. However, many people in this part of Japan were migrants in earlier eras, going to the US and Hawaii. Fukushima also has that special kind of vibe, with people from Manchuria returning after WW2, to battle against the forces of nature again. No wonder there are a lot of people in Tokyo who want to support and help any effort from Tohoku, like the Nippori March events. You a;so get the inspiration from ladies like the Hula Girls movie, based on a true story. Plus the fierce fishermen and everyone involved in the trade along the coast. I was particularly struck by t...

Strange to observe what is happening in the world. Italy has no nuclear reactors, having abandoned the idea from the start. Germany quickly responded to the call of the general public in the spring of 2011, and decided to stop investing in new nuclear plants, thus basically and fundamentally changing its energy future. Japan - after the Fukushima disaster with three meltdowns and massive hydrogen explosions. Remember at Three Mile Island in Harrisburg, US, they thought it might happen, but it didn't... Imagine if it had? Well, Japan went through three such explosions, all shown live here on television, back in March 2011, just two years ago. Then, in 2012, for two months, all of Japan's 50 or so remaining nuclear reactors went offline. Then, the Oi reactors north of Osaka were restarted, and there were amazing demonstrations and protests, unlike anything you had ever seen in this country. Now, it turns out that possibly no reactors will be restarted in Japan during...

Last July, an interesting report was published by the US energy efficiency watchdog called the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE). I had never heard of them before, and mostly they have done stuff on individual states in the US. But the report that came out was a novel attempt to rank 12 major countries in terms of energy efficiency. Then I had a look, and they managed to rank the United Kingdom as No. 1, followed by Germany, Italy and Japan in that order. I thought it is was a bit odd, and forgot about the whole thing (also because the entire point of their exercise seemed to be to shame the United States, that ranked really low compared to others, at No. 9). I also thought it was great that Japan was up tops in a number of categories, if not always No. 1. There are certainly stuff that Japan can and should do better, like building insulation, but why is its super-efficient public train system not more highly appreciated? ACEEE: United Kingdom Tops in Ene...

Just a quick comment here following the event on Sunday for Fresh Currents , the excellent work to try to combine and collate in English what is going on right now in Japan and the world regarding renewable energy. One of the questions raised to Eric Johnson, who edited Fresh Currents, was about Feed In Tariffs (FITs) that are very important to get people to invest in alternative energy, like solar, wind, geothermal. All kinds of local energy solutions - that can help get us off nuclear power, or rather away from the energy monopoly that supported nuclear power - are going to benefit from FITs. Impressive rates show Japan's commitment to a way forward... Yes, Japan's new law from July 2012 is rather generous and will provide 42 yen per kW/h (for solar) and that is good news. FIT levels for the UK , for example, are around 9-20 yen per kW/h for solar. A similar scheme for New York Long Island Power Authority will give users just 17.85 yen per kW/h for 20 years. For Germ...

I had the great privilege to meet Swedish peace activist and writer Linda Åkerström who is visiting Japan on a project. She was just back from Okinawa where she had been interviewing activists, and also venturing all the way to Henoko beach with its amazing resilience to the proposed new naval construction. We met in Waseda and talked a lot about human rights, how we in Sweden used to be dragged by police to military conscription. Linda has worked for an organization that helped conscientious objectors who refused to participate in Sweden's military draft, the värnplikt, a curious word that means "duty to protect" but of course was a call to arms in a country that was "neutral" yet clearly taking sides in conflicts that mattered... Linda is more interested in Japan's Article 9 and what it means on the ground, today. Is it a constitutional way to avoid belligerence, as it says, or a cop-out to not deal with reality as neighbors (China, North Korea) have n...

I wish they would come up with a better name than Feed In Tariffs, but ok, we got them, and that is good. It means we are now entering a new era for renewable energy. Hey, call it whatever you want, a lot of people are going to like this. FIT? No joke. Don't throw a fit! The system requires utilities to purchase all electricity generated through solar, wind, water and geothermal power, among other eco-friendly sources, at fixed rates for up to 20 years. The costs will be passed onto consumers. The government's generous tariff rates have created considerable interest in the sector, with companies rushing to build massive solar and other power plants based on renewable energies. Two large solar installations went online in Kyoto, Gunma, Niigata and Fukuoka prefectures the same day. Meanwhile, Kyocera Corp. plans to construct a 70-megawatt solar facility in Kagoshima Prefecture and is scheduled to establish a special company to oversee the project later this mon...

Here is to hoping that Greece will get through its current financial problems. We all deserve better. OK, it may require some downsizing and a lot less consumption, and no certain outcomes. We have all lived at levels way above what this planet can sustain, especially in the so-called developed world. Turns out, we need to develop other skills, such as humility, compassion, love. Image from The Telegraph , of an ad placed in The Wall Street Journal, by a consortium of leading Greek business people who have launched an advertising campaign titled Give Greece a Chance. Note: this could happen to any country. It could happen to you. It could happen to Japan. The advert reads: Greece has committed to the toughest austerity program in modern history. Hefty tax hikes, pension and wage cuts have reduced the primary budget deficit from €24.7 billion to €5.2 billion in just two years... but with a dramatic impact on the life of every Greek. A new set of measures was recently...

Ringing the bell at a temple is a good way to start a new year. Pandabonium caught me over at the Big Buddha at Ushiku, Ibaraki. I hope to visit soon, again. Thanks. Saying thanks seems to be important for me as we move into the year of the dragon, 2012. I have so much so be grateful for. Hope you all feel the same. Thanks for reading Kurashi, since 2005, it has been a lot of blogging. Not sure if this "eco blog" is still what it claims to be, as car makers and air con makers and anyone with a story to tell now have become "eco" and I doubt that there is any logic to their ecology. When I first started this blog, I don't think anyone else was blogging about green topics from Japan. Well, things have changed, but have you? Ten Thousand Things is my favourite blog to watch for 2012. Shisaku is very good too, if you want to follow "Marginalia on Japanese politics and society", as he puts it. Global Talk 21 is rather good, if only he would post more fre...