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Japan debates green transformation push with 20 tril yen outlays

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SIMPLE,

Just look at what other environment friendly nations are doing and improve on it, NO NEED to reinvent the wheel.

1- Stop manufacturing diesel engines.

2- Stop manufacturing engines that runs on Regular gas, Unleaded environmentally friendly

3- Educate the public, factories, and some government agencies about the dangers of burning trash filled plastics at night. It is disgusting.

4- Promote Solar, make it cheaper to buy and install, keep it out of the scammers reach as most people got turned off by all the scams and tricks power companies used to hook and contract clients.

5- Promote ride sharing or carpool

6- Reduce the cost of transportations, it costs and arm and a leg just to go to school or university so students prefer to buy a transportation.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

A few years ago the last remaining tree outside our block was cut down. While I was heartbroken, the neighbours were delighted as it meant no more dead leaves on their balconies and no insects. Japanese people, in my experience, absolutely detest nature. Just look at how many trees there are in Tokyo (and there are fewer every year). What chance a 'green transformation' when most people are happy to see the entire environment in which they live made of nothing but concrete?

This attitude towards trees always makes me kind of sick too, its like whenever I see a nice mature tree I have to remind myself not to get too attached to it since its inevitably going to get cut down by someone.

That said, I think there is an important distinction to note. Japanese society doesn't dislike trees per se, it just dislikes them in the built environment (ie in cities). You can see this whenever you get to the interface between the built environment and "wilderness" - everything in the built environment is cramped into every square inch of space right up until that border, with almost no natural vegetation allowed to grow anywhere, then suddenly its all forest (usually the foot of the mountainside acting as the barrier).

The result is that if you look at a satellite photo of Japan on Google Earth, you can see that the vast majority of the country is still forest (yeah I know a lot of it is planted monocultures, etc, but its still forest). They haven't done the whole slash and burn thing here like some other countries that used to be forested but have turned all of that land into agricultural space or something like that.

So I give Japan some credit for that. The cities are ugly and mostly tree-less, which sucks, but the country as a whole has done an OK job of maintaining its forest cover.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Japan is about 65-70% mountainous, hence all the greenery visible in aerial photos. The land is mostly steep and pretty much unusable for anything other than trees. About 12% of the whole country is sugi plantations.

On a cultural note, English speakers have a positive image of fallen leaves. They rustle, play in the wind, and scrunch under foot. In Japanese culture, fallen leaves get wet and unpleasantly stick to things, hence the metaphor for the hobbyless retired husband who mopes around the house and intrudes on his wife's space. Japanese may appreciate their colour on the tree, but once fallen, autumn leaves are something to disposed of asap.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Masakazu Tokura, who heads the Japan Business Federation, a business lobby known as Keidanren, is among the panel members from the business community.

Putting the foxes in charge of the henhouse; in this case those responsible for the profiteering from environmental degradation in charge of taxpayer wealth with the government's assurance they will "fix it".

The "New Capitalism" looks more like the old corporate welfare and socialism for the rich as before.

2 ( +6 / -4 )

Mark

SIMPLE, 

Just look at what other environment friendly nations are doing and improve on it, NO NEED to reinvent the wheel.

6- Reduce the cost of transportations, it costs and arm and a leg just to go to school or university so students prefer to buy a transportation.

Are you talking about Japan? Transport costs here are very reasonable and lower than in any of the G7 countries. Never heard of students wanting to buy cars. I think the youth of today have less interest in cars.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

hunting an illusion

1 ( +7 / -6 )

Thats $1000 per capita, so keep your eyes open for it being handed out in subsidies for things. Solar panels, high performance windows, electric car chargers, or whatever. Major players will have better access to the trough, but there are always some schemes for us little people.

It seems like major lifestyle changes in rich countries are completely off the table, so I think the most effective way to decarbonize would be a massive push for lab grown meat or another engineered meat substitute. Unlike nuclear fusion, I believe this is possible in a reasonable time frame with knowledge we have. Meat production has bigger emissions than flying and is why the Amazon is being chopped down.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Look at Germany to see how well spending half $1 trillion on solar panels and wind turbines “work”. Highest electricity rates in the developed world plus 6 times higher carbon dioxide emissions than mostly nuclear-powered France. A hyper-inflated and irrational aversion to the safest and most powerful form of energy (nuclear) will make our lives miserable and dirtier.

Spending money on renewables is not what caused Germany to embark on its idiotic nuclear policy. A country can both spend money on renewables AND nuclear power, the two are not mutually exclusive.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Looks like another bumper payday for Dentsu.

0 ( +5 / -5 )

Too many of the earth's natural boundaries have been passed - so green "growth" is an oxymoron. If any country is serious about sustainable futures, they have to focus on a steady state (zero growth) economy.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

another some LDP friendly business will make right guys really rich by our taxes

-1 ( +6 / -7 )

Kishida should watch the news or internet. Volcanoes and earthquakes are going off almost daily, and he wants to restart NPPs.? Most are out of date and almost all are either on active fault lines of imminent tsunami risk. Then there is national security. Russia and China have supersonic missiles that could hit any NPP within 15-30 minutes. There is no physical weapon system to stop these weapons.

We have sun, wind, wave and geothermal resources. And idiots.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

 Promote Solar, make it cheaper to buy and install, keep it out of the scammers reach as most people got turned off by all the scams and tricks power companies used to hook and contract clients.

That alone would do wonders. I would even go so far as to say subsidize it.

Another big thing is putting the infrastructure and technology into place to get more people to WFH and SFH. Reducing the number of commuters alone makes a difference.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Look at Germany to see how well spending half $1 trillion on solar panels and wind turbines “work”. Highest electricity rates in the developed world plus 6 times higher carbon dioxide emissions than mostly nuclear-powered France. A hyper-inflated and irrational aversion to the safest and most powerful form of energy (nuclear) will make our lives miserable and dirtier.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

The same green policy that the liberal left in America has implemented that threw the American economy into the ditch and one of the major causes of hyperinflation at 9% and the shortage of energy supply.

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

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