The Futurability of Islands: A Japanese Reflection on the Harmonious Coexistence of Nature and Humankind - Island Futures: Conservation and Development Across the Asia-Pacific Region - page 14

of the whole Japanese Archipelago, which had a more or less clear zoning of its core
area ( okuyama ), buffer zone ( satoyama ), and transitional and residential area ( hitozato ).
This zoning coincides with the modern concept of conservation areas, such as those
formally anticipated in the BR concept proposed by MAB in the 1960s. Development
of the Japanese Archipelago did not occur under the direction of any great decision
maker, and it was not suggested by scientists; instead, it unfolded through the local
people's harmonious coexistence with nature.
This traditional Japanese concept is based on the people's sincere worship of
nature, recognizing everything on Earth to be a gift from the kami , or deity. This
general idea developed historically in harmony with the natural environment
surrounding the people. The Japanese Archipelago is not abundant in mineral
resources but it has a rich biodiversity, which is favored by its warm temperature
and abundant precipitation under the influence of the Black Current. However, the
Japanese Archipelago has been frequently attacked by a variety of natural disasters,
including earthquakes, floods, lightning, and tsunamis. The Japanese people, then,
had awe and respect for nature and held the traditional belief that nature gave them
a variety of benefits. They also believed that eight million deities lived in the
primeval forests. This belief was originally a form of animism seen in various civi-
lizations throughout the world. As part of the animism concept, the people believed
that nature itself was a deity and that, therefore, all things on Earth were themselves
deities. They believed that they would be punished if they spoiled anything in vain,
and they religiously utilized every substance; even waste materials, such as faeces.
Today's Tokyo, which was often referred to as Yedo, was populated by a million resi-
dents during the eighteenth century, but at the time it was much cleaner than Paris or
London. This was because of the lifestyle of the people of Yedo who did not throw
away even sewage but used it effectively in a perfect recycling system. The people of
Yedo did not think in terms of the money they could earn from the sewage; they
simply respected the value of every substance.
It is difficult to introduce the traditional Japanese attitude toward nature expressed
by “harmonious coexistence between nature and humankind”. When the International
Garden and Greenery Exposition was organized in Osaka in 1990, this concept was
not correctly introduced in English. The Japanese phrase was therefore translated into
English with the kind help of my colleagues at the Botanic Gardens in Kew. The
original Japanese phrase was something like “humankind and nature live together”,
but it is very difficult to translate the true meaning of “live together” in Japanese
(kyousei) into an appropriate English term. Most Japanese find it easy to understand
the deeper meaning of the Japanese term for “living together”, which, in Japanese
dictionaries, is also used to mean “symbiosis”, but only in a biological sense.
In Japanese dictionaries, the general use of the word that means “living together”
has more impact and currency than “harmonious coexistence”. We therefore cannot find
a suitable expression in English.
Regretfully, this difficulty in translation is not only an outcome of problems with
terminology but also of a real difficulty in expressing concepts. Traditionally,
the Japanese expected to have a harmonious coexistence with nature, and even now
the Japanese people as a whole retain this concept. Recently, some Japanese people