Japanese Buddhists are beginning to make structural changes that have a direct impact upon the environment. "Conservative conservationism" seems to be one model for a hypercapitalist Japan.

Environmental issues ranging from global climate change, air and water pollution, unsustainable forestry, and industrial practices have recently received increasing international attention as issues that transcend national boundaries. As part of this discussion, there has also been some recognition that environmental problems are not solvable simply through technological and/or policy fixes but are actually a matter of worldview (how nature is viewed) and ethical values (how human beings interact with the natural world). From the perspective of what some have termed deep ecology, scientific, economic, and political solutions must go hand in hand with a worldview that does not devalue the natural world as simply a resource to exploit but understands the earth's ecosystems and the need to protect them, which is essential to human existence.

The critique of an anthropocentric and unsustainable economic system has come not only from environmentalists but also from a surprising corner: Buddhists. Whether it be so-called engaged Buddhists in Southeast Asia, Buddhist "capitalists" in Japan, or Tibetan Buddhists in exile who want to protect their homeland's wilderness, a growing number of contemporary Buddhists have found common ground in suggesting that Western (and Christian-rooted) anthropocentric worldviews that privilege humans (as "made in God's image") as the divinely sanctioned lords over all other creatures are inadequate for a new ecological vision of the world and perhaps the root cause of environmental problems that come from human overpopulation (encouraged by the dictum "be fruitful and multiply"). These Buddhists point to a more biocentric vision of the human-nature relationship found in Buddhist doctrines such as the "buddha-nature of all sentient beings" (as found in the Lotus Sutra) and the interconnectedness of all beings (the Avatamsaka Sutra). They also point to the ethic of nonviolence (ahimsa) as found in Buddhist precepts, whether for the monastic or the lay community (as found in the Buddhist Vinaya texts); the centrality of the practice of compassion (karuna) and loving-kindness (metta) for the Buddhist project of alleviating suffering; and the Buddhist economic principle of a livelihood based on reducing greed and increasing mutual benefit (right livelihood) as a Buddhist-based or -inspired worldview and lifestyle more appropriate to an ecological age.

Today Japan is a leader in environmental technologies and "green products" ranging from energy-conscious refrigerators to hybrid cars. In this essay, I will outline some of the discussions and actions as found in contemporary Japan to reconsider the role that Buddhist doctrine and practice might play in offering an alternative to Western market-oriented economic systems that are seemingly incapable of preventing ecological destruction.

Japanese Buddhist Environmentalism

Riding Tokyo's Den'en-toshi subway line due west, one emerges from the underground section of the train line just before Futako Tamagawa Station. Before reaching the station's platform, one can see a large temple on the hill to the left. During the mid-1990s, for a period of several years, one would also have noticed a series of massive signboards along the temple hillside that collectively read "To the Mitsui Real Estate Company: Plants and Trees Also Have the Buddha-Nature."

This prominently displayed message to one of Japan's largest real estate conglomerates had been put up by Shunno Watanabe, the chief priest of the temple Gyozenji. This Pure Land-sect temple had been established in the 1560s on this hilltop in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward, and in the centuries that followed it became well known for its view of the plains below. The priest had launched a campaign against the construction by Mitsui Real Estate Company of a massive apartment complex right next to the temple that would not only obstruct the view from the temple but would involve the cutting down of 130 of the 180 ancient trees.

Not only did Watanabe rally his temple members; over the course of several years, he also organized a major petition drive (eventually collecting more than twelve thousand signatures that he submitted to the ward office) opposing the destruction of one of Tokyo's few remaining wooded sanctuaries. Employing the slogan "Plants and Trees Also Have the Buddha-Nature," the Buddhist priest appealed to the conscience of the residents in the ward (Watanabe serving as the new head of the "Seta no Kankyo o Mamoru Kai," or the Association to Protect Seta's Environment), the ward officials, and Mitsui Real Estate Company. Declaring that his group was "not anticonstruction but simply for the preservation of these trees," the campaign successfully pressured the company to build the apartment complex with minimal environmental impact.

Today most of the ancient trees next to Gyozenji still stand, and the view from the temple over the region is still panoramic. This case highlights the increasing role of Buddhist priests, temples, and lay associations in environmental activism in Japan, which had historically been associated with local citizens' groups and environmental organizations that came out of the left and labor movements of the 1960s and 1970s.

Buddhist temples have often served as stewards for much of the natural landscape of Japan since the early medieval period. But explicitly linking Buddhist doctrine with environmental protection is relatively recent. Historically, the consumer rights movement and other environmental activism in Japan have been driven by local citizens' groups and environmental organizations that were born from the left and labor movements of the 1960s. However, beginning in the late 1970s, a number of Buddhist priests, temples, and lay associations dropped their traditional resistance to what had been perceived as a leftist cause, developing new forms of Buddhist environmentalism that resonated with a more conservative worldview. Buddhist priests spearheading a local environmental initiative represent a small portion of the many individuals who understand their commitment to Buddhism and the traditions of temple life as requiring engagement in environmental issues. This short article provides an overview of this type of "Buddhist environmentalism" in Japan and offer some preliminary ideas on how the Japanese case can be understood primarily as a type of "conservative conservationism."

Establishment Buddhism and Sect-wide Environmentalism: The Case of the Soto Zen Green Plan

Since 1995 the Soto Zen sect has maintained a nationwide campaign for the environment, taking up key issues of energy use and consumer waste. The earliest of Japanese Buddhist sects to promote environmentalism on a sect-wide basis, they developed the comprehensive Green Plan and promoted it among the more than fifteen thousand temples of Soto Zen Buddhism.

The Green Plan has long been part of the official Soto Zen strategy to engage pressing contemporary issues. Through pamphlets, books, and symposiums, the sect has encouraged both individual priests and temples and sect organizations (such as regional district, women's, and youth associations) to take up the environmental cause as a part of one's affiliation with the Soto Zen sect. The promotional materials emphasize the teachings of Dogen and Keizan, which promote sensitivity to the natural world (such as Dogen's view that grasses, trees, and forests are manifestations of buddha-nature). They also point to conservation measures (such as monastic rules on not wasting water and food).

Green Plan pamphlets for sect households and temples also include items such as checklists to monitor the use of televisions and other electrical appliances (to meet a sect-wide goal of reducing energy use by 1 percent), information on purchasing "ecoproducts," warnings on genetically modified foods, and detailed guides on how to properly separate materials to be recycled from general refuse. To chart progress on these initiatives, the sect established a fund, the Soto-Sect Green Plan Foundation, to raise money for nonprofit environmental groups in Japan. To measure carbon emission output, the sect headquarters distributed a chart to calculate the amount of CO2 each household produces per year. Based on the Buddhist teachings of using less (chisoku) and donating (fuse), the fund has been a way to link Buddhist practice, environmental awareness and action, and fund-raising.

Individual temples have also been sites of Buddhist environmental practices. Whether it be the establishment of a green corridor and biotope at Kozen'in Temple (Saitama Prefecture), collaboration with forest ecologists in the large-scale reforestation campaign at the head temple Sojiji as part of the "Sennen no mori" (Thousand-Year Forest), or the installation of a nationwide acid-rain monitoring system at 650 Soto Zen temples, the Buddhist temple as a site for environmental practice has become increasingly accepted.

Japanese Engaged Buddhism and the Search for an Alternative Paradigm: The Case of Juko'in Temple

In contrast to the sect-wide activities of established Buddhist organizations, a number of individual priests and their temples have developed alternatives outside the sectarian establishment and the mainstream economic system. A good example is Hidehito Okochi, a Pure Land-sect priest and a leading figure in the Japanese "engaged Buddhism" movement. As abbot of Juko'in Temple, founded in 1617 and having a current parish membership of 250 families, he could easily have settled for the life of a typical parish priest---performing funerary rites and organizing annual services around the temple calendar. But over the years, he has served in all kinds of social- and environmental-justice movements and has written a number of books on small-scale development. Though some of the groups are Buddhist inspired, many are secular, nongovernmental organizations working on social welfare issues in Japan and around the world.

The key to Okochi's engaged Buddhism is his interpretation of the Buddhist teaching of "suffering." He interprets suffering as existing not only on a personal level but also at a deep structural level in the modern socioeconomic system. This brings him in line with the analysis of many engaged Buddhists. For Okochi, Buddhism is not simply a religion for transforming oneself but a religion for transforming society.

Okochi combines this emphasis on a return to the original teachings of the Buddha with Pure Land Buddhist rhetoric about making this world the Pure Land. Many in the Pure Land and True Pure Land traditions interpret Amida's Pure Land to be a heavenly land to which believers go after death. In contrast, Okochi believes that heavens and hells are manifest in this world and that this world is itself the locus for the development of the Pure Land. This notion is, of course, not original, but it is nevertheless a minority tradition within the Pure Land sects.

In his environmental work, Okochi linked this concept of building a Pure Land on Earth with his critique of the structures of modern Japan. As an increasing number of Japanese became aware of global-warming issues through the 1997 Kyoto conference, Okochi was mobilizing citizens in his locality in Tokyo. He helped establish a local group to document the destruction of the rain forest by Japanese multinationals and successfully pressured the local council not to use wood from tropical rain forests. By far their most ambitious project was to establish an alternative-energy power plant in the ward to end their neighborhood's dependence on Japanese fossil-fuel and nuclear energy. In 1999 the Edogawa People's Power Plant No. 1 was constructed as a citizens' effort to withdraw from the energy companies and the financial institutions that funded them. The power plant was located on the roof of Juko'in Temple.

The temple name, consisting of the Chinese characters ju (life) and ko (light), reflected the Pure Land tradition's teachings that existence is the unlimited life and light of the Buddha. The four-hundred-year-old temple faced a radical rebuilding in terms of temple architecture. After obtaining the cooperation of his parishioners, the temple was completely modernized using ecofriendly concrete and wooden building materials. The traditional roof tiles were replaced with two sets of fifteen large solar panels that would generate six thousand kilowatts per hour. This was enough to receive official recognition from the local government as the first of several planned People's Power Plants in Edogawa Ward.

The funding for this project---six million yen---came from local environmental groups, individual donors, and loans from an independent bank that the group established---the Mirai (or "Future") Bank. Okochi adapted a temple fund-raising strategy from the premodern period when donors bought roof tiles for a new temple's construction over and above the actual cost. He asked locals to buy solar panels as a gift to the temple power plant. The taiyo kawara or "sun tiles," were sold at five thousand yen (US$50) per panel, and the funds were deposited in the new bank.

Okochi's approach has been very practical and reflects his Pure Land background in his belief that ordinary Japanese citizens can participate in this type of engaged Buddhism without engaging in asceticism or sacrificing comfort. His ideal of "engaged citizenship," or the spirit of volunteerism in society, is active social reform. Aligning itself with ordinary citizens, disdaining what some might consider elitist asceticism, his approach differs from the Soto Zen establishment Buddhism because it is based on a critique of the current sociopolitical and capitalist system. With much of mainstream Buddhism aligned politically with the right and big business, Okochi's leftist rhetoric of siding with the poor and the oppressed offers an important but marginal voice in the contemporary Japanese Buddhist landscape.

Conservative Japanese Buddhist Environmentalism in Local and Global Contexts

In contrast to the type of progressive politics of Okochi, Japanese Buddhist environmentalism is by and large conservative. While it is undoubtedly true that socially engaged Buddhism is generally characterized by forms of progressive politics, many Japanese Buddhists involved with environmental issues come out of a strain of conservatism that celebrates local tradition and involves Japanese nationalism on the international stage.

A good example of an environmentalism based on the rhetoric of "conservation" is that of Shincho Tanaka, the Shingon-sect abbot of Shimyo'in Temple in Kyoto. Located at the very source of the Kamo River, which runs through the old capital, the temple has served as the protector of this important watershed since the medieval period. Taking pride in the temple's role over the centuries, the temple abbot has viewed it as a calling to help maintain the cleanliness of the water source and protect a site that in times past was considered a sacred area into which only the initiated and purified mountain ascetics could enter. Indeed, over the years, Tanaka himself has noted that many Kyotoites would say that "the abbot of Shimyo'in is picky" because of his strict rules about banning visitors from eating and drinking or bringing in bags of any kind into the temple area. He says he did this to correct the bad manners of visitors and tourists, whose numbers probably went down because of the rules, to keep the watershed pure and free of trash as "the river is born from the mountain."

The environmental activism of this priest began in the spring of 1988, when a proposal was made to build a major dam on the Kamo River between Kamigamo (Upper Kamo) Shrine and Shimyo'in Temple. Knowing that both the river that defined the character of Kyoto and the mountain on which his temple stood would be destroyed, he became determined to fight the dam project. It was a noble thought, but in the postwar history of dam building in Japan, once a decision to build a dam had been made, even with protests and petitions, not a single project had been halted. For this seemingly impossible task, Tanaka put his faith in the protective divinity of Shimyo'in Temple, Fudo Myoo, a wrathful divinity in the esoteric Buddhist pantheon. Drawing on the esoteric Buddhist tradition's emphasis on the nonduality of body and mind, form and formlessness, Tanaka claims that "unlike other sects, which focus on the other world, esoteric Buddhism focuses on this world," which is composed of the six great elements (earth, water, fire, wind, space, and mind) that manifest the enduring truth of Dainichi Nyorai (Maha-Vairochana, the Cosmic Buddha). With esoteric Buddhism as his philosophical ground and Fudo Myoo as his protective divinity, Tanaka decided that "the antidam movement would start from our mountain temple."

The group, with Tanaka as its spokesman, began attracting supporters among civic groups, artists, and scholars, raising enough money to initially hire a consultant company to assess environmental damage. Raising its profile through such events as sponsoring antidam classical music concerts in the mountain temple or large demonstrations in Kyoto City, the movement drew the attention of the media. By June 1989 the movement had joined forces with other groups concerned with protecting Kyoto's water and greenery and began to exert political pressure on the governor and assembly. With opposition to the dam across the political spectrum, the campaign to "conserve" traditional Kyoto (its temples, the Kamo River, and its greenery) managed to stop the project and become the first of several major campaigns to block the damming of Japanese rivers.

What is of interest here is the preponderance of politically conservative Buddhist environmentalists. While engaged Buddhism, particularly in the West, tends to draw from the progressive end of the political spectrum (as with convert Buddhists in general), Japanese engaged Buddhism is far more complex. The leading Buddhist economist in the post-war period, Shin'ichi Inoue, is another case in point. Although his work on developing "a Buddhist economics to save the earth"---the title of one of his books---can be understood as part of a Schumacherian tradition of a "small is beautiful" economics and a critique of American economics, Inoue was a well-known nationalist and former member of the kamikaze corps during World War II. As a leading banker (Bank of Japan and Miyazaki Bank) and a board member of several major lay Buddhist organizations, he had deep connections to powerful members of the conservative Liberal Democratic Party. His model for a uniquely Japanese form of capitalism---to be a counterbalance to what he thought was an immoral American model (he had respect for the German model and Tony Blair's British model)---was an attempt to recast capitalism in a kinder, gentler Japanese mode based on the morality of Buddhism. Rather than developing a new theory of economics, Inoue was a firm believer in capitalism and a critic of leftist movements like labor unions. Inoue represents another important strand of Buddhist conservationism that is truly conservative.

Conclusion

Rather than an environmentalism that would be a radical departure from social and political norms, the Buddhist institution in Japan represents a conservative bastion from which it is not easy to move forward on environmental issues. Institutional Buddhism in Japan not only tends to support the establishment but is perhaps the most conservative pillar in contemporary Japanese society. The result has been that despite the exception of the Soto Zen Green Plan, most Buddhist environmentalism in Japan has had to remain small-scale, localized, conservative, and organized primarily on the initiative of an individual or small group.

At the same time, whether it be creating energy off the grid through solar roof panels (Juko'in) or making use of sect-wide organizations to promote "green Buddhism" (the Soto Zen Green Plan), Japanese Buddhists are beginning to make structural changes that have a direct impact upon the environment. Precisely because establishment Buddhism is a pillar of mainstream Japanese society, even small changes at the more than one hundred thousand temples have the potential to make dramatic changes not only at local temples but also in the environmental patterns of the millions of lay Buddhist members of those temples. In this way, "conservative conservationism" seems to be one model for a hypercapitalist Japan and a generally conservative Buddhist establishment.

Duncan Ryuken Williams, Ph.D., is associate professor of Japanese Buddhism and chair of the Center for Japanese Studies of the University of California, Berkeley. He works primarily on Japanese Buddhist history, Buddhism and environmentalism, and American Buddhism. He is the author of The Other Side of Zen: A Social History of Soto Zen Buddhism in Tokugawa Japan and editor of three volumes, including Buddhism and Ecology: The Interconnection of Dharma and Deeds.