Today I was reading the news and came across this article:

http://www.tv-asahi.co.jp/ann/news/web/html/201213037.html

What’s going on in it is Daihatsu, a car company here that doesn’t sell in the US and produces mainly small cars (軽自動車 they call them) has developed what is to date the highest fuel efficiency gasoline only (non-hybrid) car. This is going to be released at the beginning of next year.  At the end of the article they mention that Daihatsu is in fierce competition with Mazda to develop the highest fuel efficiency vehicle.  They’re both shooting for over 30 km/liter, which is about 70 mpg.

This struck me as yet another thing you’ll never see in the US.  At first I thought it might be because there are tax incentives to these companies to do this, but while this may be the case, I think that’s certainly not the only reason.  The Japanese are very big on resource and environmental preservation.  A few examples are how the toilets have two flush mechanisms, one for “大” or big, and one for “小”, or small.  At first I thought this was so trivial that it’s no wonder toilets elsewhere in the world don’t implement it, but if you think after thousands of flushes per day, the water saved will add up.

I also remembered that a few weeks ago my professor was telling me about the Japanese take on waste, or 勿体無い (which means wasteful) as they call it.  In every aspect of life this principle seems to be applied; from the fact that there is never, ever any litter on the streets (you could do a scavenger hunt in any metropolitan area in this country looking for litter, it would take hours to find any), to how you’re always expected to eat all of your food and never throw any out.  The second part isn’t a big deal because food is both extremely expensive and the portions are tiny.

Just another small thing that sets Japan apart from the rest of the world.

Location: 仙台市宮城県