Conspicuous, Wasteful Consumption?

We're all guilty of wastefulness in our consumer society. We're more aware now, and are being encouraged to do all manner of little things to address the careless manner in which we waste our resources. Don't use plastic shopping bags; re-use them if you must use them, but preferably use more durable devices to carry goods from place of purchase to home. Recycle or re-use. Refuse to purchase items which have been too obviously packaged beyond need.

So it's more than a little amusing to read a musing article written by a reporter who had attended the Group of 8 meeting which just latterly took place in Japan. Some of the most urgent topics addressed by that influential group of eight nations was the state of the international economy, and also the state of our declining environment - along with the relentless rise of oil prices, and with it attention given to ever diminishing resources.

What particularly struck the reporter was the sheer exuberant plethora of packaging he observed while he was in Japan. Not that only, but the feverish consumerism displayed in Japan itself; the people of Japan are wildly enthusiastic consumers. Despite that they live in tiny, cramped apartments and homes, they seek out the latest gadgets, and discard those that have outlived their newness, not their utility.

While the government of Japan proclaims itself to be embracing the "less is better" or "waste not, want not" divine scripture of devoted environmentalists, what is seen on the ground is anything but spare necessity. Attendees at the summit were laden down with lavish gifts, from DVDs to books, to wristwatches. The Japanese have an ingrained and well-defined love of nature. They adore green spaces and the forests and mountains that surround their teeming cities.

But they are also inextricably wedded to a fascination with consumer products. Entire urban areas in Tokyo, for example, are devoted to the sale of footwear, cookware, electronic gadgets, watches, motorcycles - to the exclusion of any other goods. And everything is carefully displayed and encased and wrapped. The Japanese are fond of giving "presents", even to themselves, so when they purchase an item, presentation is vital to its enjoyment.

Everything must be individually wrapped, not once but several times over. I used to wonder at the sheer wastefulness of it all, well before the current sentiments of the green environmentalists who now decry our wasteful lifestyles. And then I watched, utterly fascinated over the succeeding years, as I noted that in North America the Japanese way of packaging appeared to have triumphed here also, over common sense.

So even while the government of Japan has whole-heartedly taken the message unto itself, and does reasonably expect that it will follow the environmental dictates of using fewer resources needlessly, it doesn't stand up too well to close scrutiny. Enterprising Japanese are able to take ideas that emanate elsewhere and refine them to produce truly amazing results. They're fully capable of developing systems that use alternate resources little thought of for their practical utility.

And on the other hand, continue to indulge their culture of conspicuous consumption. It has indeed become a vital portion of the Japanese culture. It's a sense of refined and delicate attention to details, and those details include beautiful and clever and wasteful packaging. Along with a devotion to the very latest creations, be they electronic or other elements of personal ownership of goods, packaged or otherwise.

And isn't that just about as human as you can get? That we want everything we can get our greedy little hands on, yet we wish also to be responsible and responsive to the obvious need to desist in misusing our dwindling natural resources.