Japan Takes Holidays to G8 High with Mountain Day
Link: https://sg.news.yahoo.com/japan-takes-holidays-g8-high-mountain-day-112611881.html
This article introduces a newly established holiday called Mountain Day in Japan which will be celebrated annually on August 11, with effect from 2016. The passage suggests that a primary incentive of such a holiday is to provide people with “opportunities to get familiar with mountains and appreciate blessings from mountains.” In addition to this, Mountain Day seeks to provide salarymen with more vacation time, away from their stuffy office cubicles.
The article describes the relationship between Japan and the environment as a harmonious one whereby Japanese, especially the older generations, would enjoy trekking up the mountains. During winter, Japanese and even foreigners will head to the snowy slopes to ski and snowboard. However, realistically speaking, more attention is often given to the various activities rather than to nature itself. In Moon’s words, “nature (is) turned into a commodity wrapped with other attractions” and thus, becomes the backdrop beneath everything else. Furthermore, by creating a holiday for people to head to the mountains, there is bound to be destruction of nature due to increased human activities. Subsequently, from an economic perspective, additional destruction will be inevitable when more facilities are built to meet people’s needs. How is it that Japan can still claim to be green when there seems to be more damage done to the environment?
The article goes on to explain how Japan is a nature-loving country as a result of a Shinto-inspired culture. On top of Mountain Day, there are also other holidays celebrating nature such as Ocean Day (or Marine Day) and Greenery Day. Shintoism comes into play when people continue believing in some of the myths. For instance, mountains and wilderness are believed to house many spirits and it is important to pay respects to the mountains, so as to appease the spirits (Kalland and Asquith, 1997). As Kirby (2011) explains, Shintoism may not be adopted by many in contemporary urban Japan but the legacy of Shintoism permeates all stages of Japanese society. In which, appreciation of “Japanese nature” is seen as a way of expressing one’s Japaneseness. I would argue that Japan is not as nature-loving as the article claims to be. By pinning a specific day for the celebration of mountains, the holiday serves as a reminder to Japanese that one should appreciate their mountains – therefore, it is not an inherent characteristic amongst Japanese.
To conclude, Japan provides the illusion of being green due to the vast amount of green landmass but in practice, a lot of the activities neglect the true existence of nature. Instead, nature’s existence is often suppressed by greater economic benefits.
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Bibliography:
Asquith, P. and Kalland, A. (1997). ‘Japanese Perceptions of Nature: Ideals and Illusions’. In Japanese Images of Nature: Cultural Perspectives. Curzon Press, pp.1-35.
Kirby, P. (2011). Troubled natures. 1st ed. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, pp.69-84.
Moon, O. (1997). ‘Marketing Nature in Rural Japan’. In Japanese Images of Nature: Cultural Perspectives, P. J. Asquith and A. Kalland, Richmond. Curzon Press, pp.221-235.