Many retailers are joining a campaign to reduce the amount of packaging. Canal City's fountains use rainwater and waste water treated within the complex. There is a blight on the horizon, though. An enormous artificial island is being built in the bay to house port facilities and new homes. Initial plans to start reclamation from the shoreline were revised after it was shown to threaten wetlands essential to migrating birds.
Japan still operates for the benefit of bureaucrats and businessmen.
Still, that's changing. For the first time, the environment was made a pillar of Fukuoka's master plan, its seventh, when it was announced recently. Citizens can do their part. She acknowledges garbage-picking is a tame sort of activism, but points out that the campaign was little noticed by officials and businessmen when it started eight years ago.