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cast into concrete. At the centre of these various projects is the creation of what the
Japanese call 'biotopes'. The term has become frequently used, not only in
specialised literature but also in publications for a general readership. It is defined in
a Hino local government publication as 'a place where animal life can be sustained'.
A term with close affinities to 'habitat', it emphasises not the animals that make a
place their home but the place in which animals can find a home. The concept of
biotope originated in Germany, where it was initially associated with nature
restoration projects in rural areas (Takeuchi Kazuhiko 1994:54). In Japan, biotopes
are often evoked in the linked discourses of ecology, nature, environment and
planning of waterways, especially those that once conveyed water to rice fields. The
Muk jima re-landscaping project is described in terms of biotope creation, as are the
dragonfly ponds in Yokohama.
In Hino, as in Yokohama, a human concern for ecosystems that have evolved as a
response to human actions is expressed in terms that carry a direct human appeal.
Frequent references are heard to a traditional Hino landscape, featuring rice fields
and irrigation waterways, and frequent appeals are made for its restoration through
the destruction of the complicated irrigation system cast in concrete and oiled by
pumps. Education and contextualisation within a discourse of traditional landscape
dominate the exterior face of the Hino projects, but the landscaping work itself
involves a scrupulous regard for techniques of habitat creation that are favourable to
fish, invertebrates, birds—all types of animal life. Within the constraints of an urban
(or, perhaps more strictly, a suburban) Japanese setting, it is hard to imagine a more
painstaking application of the vocabulary of ecological planning.
The moral within the aesthetic within the ecological
Waterways and their ecosystems have dug their way into official discourse on the
environment. Ministry of Construction documents routinely begin with a reference
to the need to improve riverine habitats. Within the ministry, a determined
campaign among a smallish group of officials has brought about some notable
successes, in terms of changing perceptions, setting a new agenda for planning
methods, and altering some of the legal parameters (Seki 1994). Improving fish
habitats is a central preoccupation of the attempts emanating from the ministry's
River Bureau to introduce a new approach to the landscaping of waterways. A
vocabulary of ecological landscaping has been elaborated and refined in order to
introduce and to adapt to the Japanese environmental context a range of techniques
and features designed to enhance piscine habitats. Ideas and practices have been
absorbed from abroad, especially Germany and Switzerland, and also to a lesser
extent Britain.
Their introduction has been far from universally welcome in Japan. To some they
appear to privilege animals at the expense of humans. To others they run counter to
older, more 'traditional' understandings of the human relationship with animals. In
