Dear Peter,



thanks for initiating such a timely discussion, and thanks for all those who contributed their insights.



I don't have an answer, but want to add a few observations.



Last autumn, I conducted interviews on gomi bunbetsu, and also on how to avoid plastic waste, traveling from Iwate and Fukushima to several places in Kansai and Kyushu. Also visited waste facilities, local government meetings etc. There are huge regional differences.



One preliminary finding is that waste reduction and waste sorting (as well as environmental protection or indeed cleaning after an event) is very much a question of what I would call 'good citizenship'. Perhaps this does not go well with a school strike in a country in which 100% class attendance is important. And the association of tōkō kyohi is not really a school strike as political action.



I also observed quite a gender difference in environmental awareness, at least among adults. Women - who are also in charge of sorting waste - were generally much more aware and concerned with environmental issues. - As is well known, postwar political activism on consumer protection, family health and environmental issues has been mostly carried by housewives. Their struggle has been legitimized by a moral imperative to protect children (their own). This has empowered them to speak up against the government and corporate authorities, but at the same time limited their influence to domestic matters. Robin LeBlanc's Bicycle citizen, but also Morioka Rika's article 'Mother courage' (in Gill, Steger and Slater 2013: Japan copes with calamity) on mothers in the Fukukushima are insightful in this respect.



Perhaps children are used to rely on their mothers to fight for a healthy environment rather than fighting for themselves.



Brigitte

Dr Brigitte Steger

Senior Lecturer in Modern Japanese Studies

Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
University of Cambridge


Fellow and Director of Studies at Downing College


bs382@cam.ac.uk <mailto:bs382@cam.ac.uk>

On 29 Sep 2019, at 07:53, SSJ-Forum Moderator <ssjmod@iss.u-tokyo.ac.jp <mailto:ssjmod@iss.u-tokyo.ac.jp>> wrote:



From: Sakari Mesimäki <sakari.mesimaki@gmail.com <mailto:sakari.mesimaki@gmail.com>>

Date: 2019/09/27


Dear All,


I spent the summer months in Tokyo doing field work and interviews for my master's thesis about how a community of young people are trying to change what it means to talk about "politics" and "social problems". I think my preliminary findings may provide some modest insight as to why there is so little engagement with green politics - or politics at all - among at least younger Japanese.


Many of my interlocutors shared Dr. Cabell's view of the influence of education. Young people do not have a chance to discuss politics at school, or at home, or anywhere else for that matter. They simply memorize the facts of the political system.


Some interlocutors, who are taking an interest in politics and trying to overcome the "taboo" on talking about it, are actually finding that they don't quite know *how* to talk about politics! What if I disagree with my friend? How should I handle such conflict? During the summer's upper house elections there was a considerable "let's all talk about politics" discourse, but also an apparent difficulty to understand what it actually means, in practice, to "talk about politics" when you have never done so before. I myself attended a political discussion workshop arranged during the election period where the first rule was that you are not allowed to express support for any particular candidate or party!


There are a host of negative associations attached to discussion or interest in politics or social issues. It's essentially something for "ishikitakai" and "majime" dorks. If the political activity has any ideological or activist flavor to it, it is also considered dangerous and disruptive - not something for good citizens to take part in. Interlocutors also told me of apparently popularly shared stereotypes of the kind of person with strong political beliefs: aggressively judgmental and incapable of cooperation.


My research focus is on a community of mostly middle-class creative professionals who are attempting to reintegrate politics into popular culture such as fashion and music to change the negative connotations attached to politics into something more positive, such as "cool" and "oshare". One example of such efforts is NEUT Magazine (http://neutmagazine.com/) which has made this their explicit mission. An interesting part of their brand and editorial approach is that it is built around the idea of "neutrality". This simultaneously works to make politics and social problems seem less divisive and approachable, but also sustains the virtue of avoiding confrontation and conflict which, arguably, is partly at the root of the allergy to participating in politics in the first place. To exaggerate slightly, the most legitimate and risk-free position continues to be not having any position at all.


Although environmental activism was not my specific focus, I interviewed one of the Japanese Fridays For Future activists for a short article in Metropolis magazine (https://metropolisjapan.com/fridays-for-future-tokyo/). He spoke a lot about their struggle with negative stereotypes, and how they are trying to get around these, such as by calling their action a "march" rather than a "strike" and cultivating a positive, smiling public image.


I look forward to more perspectives on this very interesting topic!


Best regards,


Sakari Mesimäki

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