The COP10 biodiversity conference now being held in Nagoya has called attention to the preservation of plant and animal species worldwide, but closer to home a grassroot eco-consciousness has been quietly growing in Japan.
One example is the popularity of a new type of low-priced, one-day eco-tour allowing urban residents to get a taste of nature while working alongside rural Japanese. In one such excursion outside of Tokyo, families help local residents cull black bass, an invasive foreign species, from a river. After enjoying a fish fry of the captured bass, the visitors return home. In another eco-tour, city inhabitants clear out underbrush to help restore beech forests located two hours by car from Kanazawa city.
The Japanese are also showing an increased interest in heirloom or heritage vegetables (variously called dento yasai, chiho yasai, furusato yasai or zairai sakumotsu), traditional vegetables that have fallen out of favor as modern, standardized varieties spread in the postwar period. In Osaka one enthusiast has developed her own picture-card show (kami shibai) to teach children about local varieties, while in other regions groups are holding recipe contests or creating bento for sale at local convenience stores.