Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Hino, residents objected strenuously to the Muk jima project, arguing that it would
lead to a proliferation of mosquitoes among the newly planted reeds and bushes
along the banks of the waterway. In Edogawa Ward, people living near the
Komatsugawa and the Ichinoe waterways objected, at different times, both to a
clean and to a dirty waterway. Some farmers in peri-urban areas have been distinctly
unsympathetic. There has been disagreement about the significance of animal as
symbol. On the one hand, the release of salmon into Tokyo rivers has provoked
opposition from professional ecologists and others who see these exercises as
misguided, if not actually harmful. On the other, local residents' leaders and
officials of local government have on occasion pressed for the adoption of a more
overtly aesthetic landscaping idiom in accord with traditional ideas.
These conflicting views have intensified the strength with which experts and
officials have attempted to legitimate the ideology of ecology-friendly landscaping
and planning. The most ingrained opposition to their efforts has come from both
the tenacious hold of the engineering ethos on large swathes of central bureaucracy
and the natural alliance that is forged with the construction industry, both general
contractors and the horde of small companies who rely on contracts for their
survival. A commitment to economic growth through public construction projects
has lain at the heart of government policy for much of the post-war period
(Woodall 1996). The alliances and habits that it generates, and the vested interests
to which it gives rise, lie deeply embedded within Japanese social structures. The
bureaucratic—engineering nexus in Japan has conditioned the nature of attempts to
introduce a new eco-friendly style of river planning. It has restricted the scale and
extent of projects, leading to an 'eco-corner' approach, where ecosystem creation or
rehabilitation is seen as one among a series of competing claims on space. By
definition, however, this runs counter to the holistic spirit of ecological concern.
There is therefore a continual need to compromise, which again sits uncomfortably
with some of the premises of ecosystem rehabilitation. Compromises might arise
out of an accommodation with those who call for a more ornamental approach to
landscaping or from engineering problems caused by ground below sea level, as is
the case in the east of Tokyo. Compromises also originate from a perceived need to
educate and the consequent casting of the message in a pedagogical idiom ('Our
friends on the water's edge', reads the headline of one of Hino's nature education
pamphlets).
Education is central in the strong moral drive among those who advocate a
departure into a more ecosystem-oriented idiom of river landscaping. The 'moral
message' of ecosystem concern is delivered at schools. In Hino, the Mukojima
waterway is brought into the school grounds, and school children are brought out to
the fields to participate in the various annual rites of rice farming. Salmon are valued
explicitly for their symbolic potential in educating children about the environment.
As we have seen, a large number of schools have become involved in the release of
salmon into the Tama river, and international conferences have been held using
salmon as a theme to bring together children to discuss environmental issues.
Human agency is fundamental in the propagation of ecosystem concern.
