Spring 1986 RAIN Page 17 made contact with farmers to produce more healthful food. The first farmer who consented to grow natural vegetables was the initiator of a farmers producers group now made up of 25 farmers. The consumer group the women initiated promised to take the farmers whole crop, be it a success or a failure, during the first few years after changing over to no-pesticide farming to alleviate the risk of change. They also have a retail system. Every member is required to build a sub-group that buys a certain amount of the farmers' crops. In the course of the increased interaction between producers and consumers, the spectrum of foods grew. Rice, meat, and fruits also were produced and distributed. Also the focus of the ideological activities widened. The group took initiatives in the legal field to ban the selling of food with chemicals. There are now many other groups similar to this women's group. Many have identical aims, but their own rules and newsletters, not working together, and often not knowing about each other. There are no nation-wide networks or coalitions of these groups as of yet. O O Internationalism: The Idea House by Shin Yoshida Internationalization has been Japan's key word for the last 10 years or so, just likeWestemization was at the time of the Meiji restoration (late 19th century). Lots of effort as well as money have been spent to internationalize Japan and her people. The national government, many local authorities, private corporations, schools, teachers, and parents all talk about and invest in internationalization. More people have the opportunity to travel abroad, and TV provides more and more news from eveiy comer of the world. However, all the efforts to become more internationalized have brought changes only at a material level, and very little at a mental level. One must ask why do Japanese people want to internationalize in the first place? Because they want to export more goods? Because they want to communicate in English with foreigners? Because everyone has realized how dependent Japan is upon the outside world? While some form of Japanese internationalization is happening at a large scale, some people are trying to do something more effective and productive at a much smaller scale. The Idea House is a group of young people who are interested in promoting the idea of thinking globally and acting locally in Japan. The people are concerned with linking international problems, especially the problems related to the Third World, with domestic problems, especially those that exist at a community level. The Idea House publishes a quarterly leaflet called Chibitto, meaning "only a little," to help ordinary people understand the connection between life in their community to the rest of the world. Last September, the Idea House published a book entitled White Paper on Overseas Co-operation: A Citizens' Version. The book promoted ordinary people's involvement in development assistance to the Third World, not through the big aid machines but through smaller development groups on a people-to-people level. It described many different ways and approaches to overseas cooperation by introducing 10 ordinary people who are already engaged in it, and by listing 230 groups that people can contact The Idea House's current major project is to conduct a “Kofu and the World” project and publish a book. Your Community and the World. The former is an action/research project that will explore the many possible linkages that the city of Kofu (130 km west of Tokyo) has with the world. People travel, food and other goods are both imported and exported, information is flying, even animals and birds come and go. After all the information is collected it will be shared with the people of Kofu. Then people will know how they are linked to the world and their position in the world. People will even know that they are important actors in foreign policy-making and that such important matters should not be left to a few politicians and bureaucrats in Tokyo. People will be able to think by themselves and decide what they can and want to do to bring about a better and peaceful world. The publishing of the book will involve translation and editing of papers and reports written by Chadwick Alger, professor at Ohio State University, the originator of the “Columbus in the World: The World in Columbus” project. The Idea House's other plans include establishing the first alternative trading organization in Japan, coordinating One World Week in Japan (its equivalents are found in England, Canada, and Australia), and publishing a journal like RAIN with emphasis on international development. O O The Other Japan
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