A few nonprofit organizations are attempting to restore nature around the nation's lakes and mountains.
The NPO Asaza Foundation is planting floating heart ("asaza") aquatic plants and other plants such as ditch reeds along Lake Kasumigaura in Ibaraki Prefecture.
Hiroshi Iijima, 46, executive director of the foundation, said he is urging local schools, fishing associations, seniors' clubs and other groups to raise asaza for planting around the prefecture's largest lake, whose shoreline ecosystems have been damaged by concrete embankments.