Asia-Pacific, Environment, Headlines

POLITICS-JAPAN: A Budding Green Party

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Jun 1 2005 (IPS) - After years of promise and failure, Japanese activists and politicians are taking the first formal steps to launch a Green Party this year to protect and promote peace movements and preservation of the environment.

“The step is long overdue and the going is tough. But we are finally taking the necessary steps to push ahead with a Green Party that will be similar to its counterparts in Europe and in Asia,” said Satoko Watanabe, human rights activist and Kagawa prefecture assembly member.

In February, the first tentative moves were made at a large gathering of international activists from the Asia-Pacific region, when Japanese conservationists representing grassroots organisations joined hands with ecology-minded local politicians to establish a movement, Greens Japan, which marks the start of negotiations for Japan’s first Green Party.

Watanabe, who is now in her third term as an independent, explains that discussions are focusing on ironing out policies that promise voters an alternative to the current pork-barrel politics, and also at boosting member numbers, with the aim of fielding at least 10 candidates in Japan’s general elections.

Tokyo will hold its influential metropolitan elections in July, but Watanabe declined to say if popular independents like her will be contesting under the flagship of a new Green Party by then.

“The importance of a Green Party is obvious in Japanese politics, which needs an alternative to the two major parties – the conservative Liberal Democrats who have long advocated money politics that destroy the environment and Democratic Socialists who actually do not offer anything that different,” added Watanabe.

Despite the growing enthusiasm, analysts and even the Greens acknowledge the going is almost prohibitively tough in Japan, where the electorate is significantly less involved in politics than in most Western societies.

While the Greens might offer a sustainable society that promises social justice, peace, safe food and non-polluting industries, few Japanese believe these are attainable goals.

Kiyoshi Matsuya, a member of the national House of Councillors who also ran on an independent ticket from Shizuoka prefecture, says a tough challenge facing the success of a Green Party in Japan is the difficulty of breaking away from old ideologies and philosophies that appeal to the average voter by promising economic prosperity.

“Post-war democracy in Japan is based on the goal of getting materialistically rich, a process that has successfully numbed public political debate. It is still difficult for us to survive against the ongoing economic recession for the same reasons,” he added.

Matsuya is well-known for supporting a bitter fight between activists and the prefectural government over the construction of a controversial airport in Shizuoka, a hilly terrain of tea plantations 180 kms from Tokyo.

Those protests forced the central government to re-examine the project, and plans are now underway to start construction in 2006.

Harumi Arima, a political analyst and author, says the rise of the Greens as a political platform is, on the surface, an important development given problems such as global warming and Japanese fears over recent food scandals. The latter include chemical-contaminated vegetables imported from China and ongoing pressure from Washington on Tokyo to lift a 15-month import ban on U.S. beef after the discovery of mad cow disease in that country.

“Environmental protection is very appealing to the average Japanese but the weakness of the upcoming Green Party is that it does not have prominent figures. Being grassroots-based in a society that has a poor civic consciousness, is a very high hurdle to overcome,” says Arima.

Indeed, the growth of a political party based on an ecology platform has not been easy. Several past attempts were short-lived, including the birth of the “Olive Tree” movement – based on leftist politics in Italy – by politician Naoto Kan, now a popular Democrat.

Experts point out that the Green Party voter base is heavily dependent on activists, trade unions and older women who are strong pacifists, along with a sprinkling of left-leaning teachers, lawyers and intellectuals. This, they say, makes the movement appear scattered and weak, thus sidelining it in a Japanese society that is deeply-rooted in a culture of inclusion.

“It’s hard to persuade a voter to understand the notion that supporting the Green party is supporting food safety when they can turn around and point out that Japanese boast the world’s highest longevity rates because of political stability and economic prosperity,” explains Arima.

But Greens say they live with hope. “It is crucial for Japan to have a Green Party against growing nationalism these days and moves to re-arm the country and a call to change the pacifist constitution. The chances for survival cannot be better for us against this backdrop,” says Matsuya.