Abstract
The early 1970s were a sharp pivot point in Japan’s postwar history, as the Garbage War of 1971 and the Oil Shock of 1973 thrust waste and wastefulness into a place of unprecedented visibility. Concerns about the waste of garbage and resources became acute, fueling environmental protection efforts and calls to “save resources” and “save energy.” The waste of things, resources, and energy came to be seen as tightly interrelated, and provoked reflection about the costs and consequences of mass production and mass consumption. With lamentations about the “throwaway society” and its “culture of disposability,” waste also became a site of reflection about the values and priorities born of high economic growth. In the 1970s, waste consciousness was not about subsistence or about friction to societal changes, but was rather a way to defend the middle-class lifestyles already achieved.
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