Foreign visitors are regularly dismayed by the prevalence of concrete in the Japanese countryside. It swathes riverbanks and props up mountains; tetrapods line the nation's shores and shinkansen tracks are supported by heavy concrete pillars. Remarkably, this unwelcome transformation of the landscape has taken place with government backing. A proposal in California may point to a way of restoring Japan's once splendid natural environment.

In Japan, environmental despoliation has been a consequence of government priorities. For much of the postwar era, the ruling Liberal-Democratic Party was rightly concerned to promote full employment. Agriculture employed half the nation's work-force in 1945; today, barely one Japanese in 20 is a farmer. In rural prefectures, with government support, the construction industry has stepped in to provide jobs for those who once farmed.

At first, construction served a useful function. Flood-prone rivers were dammed, dirt tracks surfaced with asphalt and bullet train lines built to connect major cities. But now that Japan is a developed country, such projects are increasingly redundant. Nevertheless, the LDP, fearful of unemployment in the rural constituencies which are its political heartlands, still spends trillions of yen annually to underwrite construction projects. Needless dams, major roads connecting tiny villages and the infamous "bridges to nowhere" have all contributed to the despoliation of Japan's natural environment.

Forestry, too, has taken its toll. As recently as the 1970s, much of Japan was still covered by primary forest. By 2005, over 40 percent of the nation's forest cover consisted of plantations, largely of cedar; less than 20 percent was primary forest. Alex Kerr wrote that in 1971, "Japan was perhaps one of the most beautiful countries in the world. This environment is now a thing of the past, but I doubt that the lost beauty of Japan's mountains and forests will ever fade from my memory." The loss was not merely aesthetic. Twenty million people in Japan suffer from hay fever due to cedar pollen in the air; and shallow coniferous roots encourage landslides so that more concrete must be applied to prevent them.

But Kerr implies that environmental degradation is irreversible. In fact, natural heritage can be restored. Japan might look to the Hetch Hetchy Valley in California, which has lain under water for 80 years.

Early in the 20th century, the city of San Francisco made plans to dam this glacial valley, the twin of Yosemite, and create a reservoir that would supply the city's water. These plans were hotly opposed by pioneering American environmentalist John Muir, but in 1913, President Woodrow Wilson signed the Raker Act, permitting flooding of the valley. A year later, Muir died, allegedly of a broken heart. The O'Shaughnessey Dam was completed in 1923. In the process, one of North America's most beautiful natural landscapes was effectively drowned.

But it may be on the verge of coming back to life. For decades the American environmental pressure group Sierra Club, which Muir founded, has lobbied for the removal of the dam. The campaign has gathered momentum in recent years. In July the administration of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger released findings confirming the feasibility of returning the valley to its natural state. According to the locally based non-profit organization Restore Hetch Hetchy, native plants would be established within 10 years; within 50, the valley would be a mature natural ecosystem.

Could Japan learn from this proposal? For 50 years, construction and forestry have brought jobs to workers in rural prefectures. In the next half-century, their children and grandchildren might be employed to restore the countryside to its natural state. Tasks such as dismantling dams, replanting the original mixed forests and covering concrete hillsides with new soil would require a substantial labor force. To fund this, government revenue could be diverted from public works projects. Ultimately, money and jobs would be generated as tourists returned to renovated beauty spots.

John Muir called Hetch Hetchy a "mountain temple"; damming it, he argued, would be like flooding a cathedral. Japan restores its temples; its landscapes merit equal reverence.

The Japan Times Weekly: Jan. 27, 2007
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