Compared with constitutional revision, the economy, celebrity gossip and pontificating (if not panicking) over geopolitical changes in East Asia and Japan's role in those changes, Japan's mainstream media and politicians had, until recently, given environmental issues less attention.
Suddenly, though, the environment is back on the agenda. A record-hot summer and natural disasters in Kansai and western Japan, including the flooding of Kansai airport, drove home the importance of dealing with climate change. But in cities like Kyoto, where international tourism drives large sectors of the local economy, waste and garbage and the environmental challenges it presents are the more immediate, pressing problems.
Japan's ubiquitous use of plastic and the environmental problems it creates has long been noted by those from countries with strict local ordinances or national legislation to control it. Related to the plastic waste problem is one that shocked visitors from countries where food shortages and starvation remain issues: Japan's huge volume of wasted food that often comes in plastic containers.