Japan Adopting Health And Sustainability

[Mulboyne]

[floatr][/floatr]Register-Guard: Japan embraces trend
A U.S. lifestyle concept that combines consumerism with a bit of ecological conscience is proving a hit in shopping-crazy Japan, where workaholic "salarymen" are looking for quick fixes for stress and thinking green is becoming fashionable. LOHAS, which stands for Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability...encompasses a wide range of products pushing social and environmental responsibility - organic soap, recycled paper, hybrid cars, solar heating and herbal tea... The concept is appealing, partly because it isn't too demanding. It doesn't require a stoic, idealistic way of life - just some adjustment here and there. Instead of saying: "Don't ever drive a car," it merely says: "Buy a fuel-efficient car." The idea is going mainstream in a much bigger way in Japan than in the U.S., with automakers, food manufacturers, home builders, even banks, showing interest in LOHAS marketing...more...

[dimwit]

Let's see... I can think of about zero students I know who buy organic soap. I know a few people who have solar heating but I don't think that it was their choice, ditto recycled paper, I know one person who owns a hybrid car but they just got into an accident with it so they have lost all their affection for future technology.

[rooboy]

Healthy and sustainable food and other products in Japan - my fat Aussie arse! This is simply another example of the fad in Japan and the gullible consumers who couldn't recognise "organic" /"sustainable"/"natural" products if they came up and colored Japanese hair green .....

There are countless products in Japan that claim in violation of consumer rights laws in Oz, for example, that they are healthy and 'only contain natural ingredients' and 'are organically produced/grown". Like that crap in the Green Co-op shops, full of additives, salt, sugar and fat that pass for healthy, organic food. Like those vegetables in the same shops that allegedly escaped the multitude of sprays the Japanese love decorating their farm produce with.

Believe it when you see it produced - or you live in a society where freedom of consumer information and consumer rights are reality. This is just another means to make more money out of already over paying customers for faux organic food while the real things are available in countries like Oz for half the price.

Sounds like 'recycling and saving Japan's energy/environment' etc. You know, where we have to separate everything and then the gomi is taken away and dumped all in a heap near a beach or mountain. So sick of Japanese tatamae lies ................ and eager Japanese rushing for the latest rip off fad.

[Catoneinutica]

Sounds like 'recycling and saving Japan's energy/environment' etc. You know, where we have to separate everything and then the gomi is taken away and dumped all in a heap near a beach or mountain. So sick of Japanese tatamae lies ................ and eager Japanese rushing for the latest rip off fad.

So, so true. I really have trouble putting my heart into the whole styrofoam trays go here, pet bottles go there, milk cartons go there, burnable garbage goes there, steel cans here there...ad nauseum, when yak-connected "disposal" companies are just taking everything and dumping it in the Boso Penninsula. Take a drive around there sometime - it's a big garbage dump.