I found this poster on the wall of an alley way in Kichijoji in west Tokyo. Created by Musashino city, it asks people to reduce the number of plastic bags they use when shopping.

Top title:

ノーレジ袋キャンペーン。お買い物は毎バッグ。

noh regi bukuro kyanpehn. okaimono wa mai baggu.

No plastic bag at the check out campaign. Use your own bag for shopping.

The man on the right is saying to the woman:

またレジ袋なの？

mata regi bukuro nano?

Are you still using bags from the check out?

The woman sheepishly replies:

次からマイバッグね

Tsugi kara mai baggu ne

I’ll bring my own bag next time

So they are trying to reduce the amount of plastic bags which is good. Now all they need to do is stop people obsessively buying all the plastic rubbish that goes in “mai baggu” in the first place. Added to that is the large amount of packaging used for products here.

Although it is not the only place to indulge in green washing, Japan does have more than it’s fair share. Like a lot of green campaigns I have seen, the only thing green is the lettering on the promotional materials being handed out, printed on paper and wrapped in plastic. But it’s “OK” because the ink is eco friendly. I have seen hybrid taxis with their engines running while the driver sleeps in the cab. The other day I saw a t-shirt in a shop window that read “zero carbon” next to a 40 inchi plasma TV no one was watching.

Just about every car advert on TV here tries to bizarrely link driving a ton and a half of gasoline spluttering car to being eco-friendly. It’s not. ITS A CAR ( he self righteously writes from his un-eco-friendly mac laptop).

Not to be too cruel to Musashino city, it’s a cool poster with a good message. Now ,can we accelerate things so we aren’t just arranging chairs on the titanic?