Abstract
What does “environment” really mean in the complex, non-Western milieu of present-day Tokyo? How can anthropology contribute to the technical discussions and quantitative measures typically found in environmental studies? This book explores these questions through a deep cultural analysis of waste in contemporary Japan. The parameters are intentionally broad— encompassing ideas of “nature,” attitudes toward hygiene, notions of health and illness, problems with vermin and toxic waste, processes of social exclusion, and reproductive threats. The book concludes that how surroundings are conceived, invoked, and enacted is subjective, highly contextual, and under continual negotiation— with suggestive implications for anthropology, social science, and environmental studies generally. Focusing on two Tokyo neighborhoods, it shows how waste practices and ideas of pollution in the city tie clearly into broader social issues such as exclusionary practices, emergent lifestyle changes, recycling efforts, and novel forms of energy production. Throughout, waste and environmental health problems in Tokyo collide against diverse cultural elements linked to nature(s). The book's inquiry into the ways in which environmental questions circulate throughout Japanese society furnishes insight into central elements of contemporary Japanese life. As for the question of how to shape environmental policy internationally, the book reminds us that efforts to influence a society's waste shadow must unfold over a distinctive sociocultural topography where attitudes to garbage, health, purity, pollution, and excess can impact environmental priorities in profound ways.
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