Page 20 RAIN Spring 1986 Encounters with Another Japan In 1984 Donald Clark published an article in The Ecologist where he described the ‘‘other Japan." In that article he describes the situation in Zushi City (see page 23). He also described five common concerns oforganizations in the “other Japan”: healthfulfood, renewable energy, simplified living, environmental protection, and appropriate third world assistance. More recently tofurther explore these groups, Mr. Clark has sponsored meetings to encourage cross-cultural communication. In this briefarticle he describes the origins and nature ofthese encounters with another Japan. —SJ by Donald J. Clark The alternative dimensions of Japanese society are also the hidden dimensions. While this may be gradually changing, it is possible for well-informed foreigners, and Japanese, to live for long periods in this society without ever encountering a genuine “new age” person, organization, or idea. Why? It's not because alternative groups are absent. They’re here by the hundreds, but they are small and largelycut off from access to mainstream oriented media. Being alternative in values, lifestyle,and vocation also means being “out” and being “out” means being socially invisible. A few of us, calling ourselves Interface: Japan, decided therefore to organize a series of programs called “Encounters with Another Japan” in an effort to provide a means for foreigners to meet and talk with representatives of alternative Japan. There have so far been three encounters. The response was encouraging, especially the eagerness of the guests to come and talk with foreigners, even if it meant doing so in English. They are obviously anxious to tell others about what they are doing and thinking, and then to develop better working ties with interested non-Japanese. A successful follow-up meeting was held in February and a larger working group is now developing plans for additional interface programs. In the future these will also include field trips to meet individuals, groups and projects, including for example, organic farms, green politicians, educational experiments, and intentional communities. Inquiries and visitors from overseas are welcomed as a part of this expanding of contacts with alternative Japan, o O Networking In Japan by Steve Johnson Networking is very popular in Japan right now. Whenever I visited a group it seemed we would have a conversation about networking. Some of the groups wanted to talk about electronic networking—to the Japanese grass-roots movement a more important computing concept than word processing or database management. It wasn't dways clear if we meant the same things by networking. Was it getting people in touch with information? Or with other people? And what people? Sometimes when I found myself in situations with no common language, I was able to rely on there being a book nearby: Networking: The First Report and Directory by Jessica Lipnack and Jeffrey Stamps. Often staff at the grass-roots organization would pull it off the shelf as a way of asking if I . know about or “practise” networking. It was comforting to { know that there were a descriptions in the book—in •f 1; __________________ Japanese—of RAIN and several other things I've been involved in. It served me as a kind of business card. Actually the book, as when it was published in America, confirmed rather than announced a new phenomena. Salons and gathering places have been widely developed and refined throughout Japan. The recent excitment is about increasing communication between groups working on the same issues, and groups working on different but related issues. People who would show me the book seemed amazed that there were so many of these “alternative” groups in America. A column in the Asahi Shimbun (Japan's second largest newspaper), described the book in the following way: “What most people think about when the word 'network' is mentioned is a television broadcasting network. Recently this word is being used very enthusiastially but with a completely The Other Japan
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