3BL Blog

A recent survey asked leading environmental campaigners for one thing they would want to ban on ethical grounds, and one favourite ethical innovation or product. The answers are illuminating precisely because they are, taken as a group, incoherent and often tokenistic.

Products to ban include outdoor patio heaters, incandescent light bulbs (score on that one, then), bluefin tuna, 4x4 cars, private health insurance and plastic bags.

There's big stuff in there as well - military aircraft, coal fired power stations and the like.

The favourite products often go to the quirky. A wind-up torch. A folding bicycle. Organic boxer shorts. More substantial answers include electric vehicle technology, locally grown food, ethical investment vehicles.

It shouldn't be a surprise that there is such a diversity in the answers. The environmental movement is hardly one homogenous branch of thought.

But I am interested that the politicians polled generally came up with substantial answers - focused on the big priorities and big issues - and campaigners came up with small-fry (a generalisation, certainly not all of them did).

It fuels my suspicion that the target of campaigns is often fuelled by certain factors that are not related to the substance of the issue.

1. Proximity. Things that campaigners see in front of them that annoy them become targets for criticism and action. Outdoor patio heaters, for instance. And plastic bags.

The Japanese are one big family, it is often said. Small trends and changes in the family mood are amplified and exaggerated in the press--no matter if the trends are real or imagined. In fact, there is a whole industry, involving TV commentators, the print press, social scientists, and small businesses, that taps into these blips. One of the most salient trends I detected during my recent trip to Japan (visiting Tokyo, Yokohama, and Kushiro) was a subtle shift in the attitudes of young women toward gender equity.

A few weeks ago, the New York Times ran a story about a new trend in Japan--again whether it is real or imagined is debatable. The article (titled "With Jobs Scarce in Japan, Women Become Professional Flirts") said that some women are choosing to become hostesses in order to survive during the recession and that the image of hostessing as a job has gained some respectability. The article's sensational photo featured a single mother who works as a hostess (oh no, Japan's mothers are becoming prostitutes!).

I asked a Japanese friend, who is an MBA candidate in Japan, about this article and she said that the deeper issue is that single women in their late 20s and 30s are kicking up their search for financial stability. This drive includes doing previously shunned jobs or searching for husbands by engaging in "kon katsu" or "marriage hunting," which includes the use of websites that help women find men. Given the U.S. media's fondness for exoticizing Japan, what are we to make of this new trend? During my recent trip, I was eager to find out.

After talking with many people during this trip, my view is that this trend is both much ado about nothing and much ado about something very subtle, but not necessarily what one would expect on the surface. Keep in mind my view is based on conversations only, not quantitative analysis.

I just saw my old friend and former colleague Mieko Nakabayashi. She is now a bright star in the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) who is running to represent Kanagawa's first district in Japan's lower house in the Aug. 30 national election. In many ways, she epitomizes Japan's opposition the DPJ: She is hard-working, innovative, and conservative on budget issues.

Mieko was doing "yuudachi" (evening campaigning at subway stations, targeting people coming home from work). This aspect of Japanese elections is the core of democracy here; the candidate and her staff burst on to the public squares near commuter railway stations to make the case for their candidacy. A DPJ politician who introduced Mieko harshly criticized former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi's deceptive administration, which he said only focused on postal reform. Today is the first official day of Mieko's campaign and she is working from 6am to 9pm each day to get her message out:

True to her unique background working on budget issues at the U.S. Senate years ago, she is a blue dog (in fact, her campaign color is marine blue, a link to Yokohama's maritime culture), fiscal conservative. In line with the top pillar of the DPJ platform, her key message is, Japan must stop wasting money. It is already the most in debt rich country in the world. Like the GOP in the United States, Mieko compared Japan's budget to a household, asking passersby whether they would feel OK with running a household with such high levels of debt (to income).