A new environmentalist political organization held its first news conference in Tokyo on Feb. 13, pledging to rid Japan of nuclear power and block the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement.
A new environmentalist political organization held its first news conference in Tokyo on Feb. 13, pledging to rid Japan of nuclear power and block the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement.
Anthropologist Shinichi Nakazawa told journalists that Green Active would try to emulate the success of Green parties in Europe.
"We want to turn the green awareness that has grown in the minds of the Japanese following the March 11 disaster into a force that can change society," he said.
Nakazawa, director of the Institute of Art Anthropology at Tama Art University, said green politics emphasize ways of living that are rooted in nature, the environment and communities.
The new organization’s backers include Shinji Miyadai, a sociology professor at Tokyo Metropolitan University, and copywriter Miyako Maekita.
The group, which is styling itself as a “network” rather than a political party, will seek to form ties with other people supporting elements of its platform such as phasing out nuclear power and opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement.
Nakazawa said he wants to form a "national front of a sort" with groups that support a shift from nuclear to natural energy generation.
Green Active will have four divisions, including an economic division seeking to resuscitate farming, forestry and fishing industries.
A political group named "Midori no Nippon" (A Green Japan), headed by Maekita, will be set up under the organization's political division.
During the next Lower House election, Green Active may endorse candidates supporting the phasing out of nuclear power, but is also keeping open the possibility of fielding its own candidates.
Nakazawa said the new group will seek cooperative ties with "Greens Japan," a separate organization that is aiming to form the basis of a Green party in Japan.