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A man flags down a taxi and hops inside. "Sheesh! The pollen today is awful!" he exclaims, instead of greeting the driver.
Yes, reports Jitsuwa Bunka Tabuu (May), this is the sort of thing you can expect to see -- depending on prevailing winds and other weather factors -- between early February and April when Japanese cedars release huge clouds of their fine, abrasive pollen. For millions of suffering Japanese, it means sneezes, runny noses and itchy eyeballs.
On a recent installment of Beat Takeshi's "TV Tackle" program, entertainer "Sonomama Higashi" was heard to make such unfounded allegations as "The reason the government doesn't get rid of the cedar trees causing the allergies is that it wants to assist the businesses that profit from selling goods."
But let's be sensible, says the writer. In the background of these allergies are efforts by humans to sanitize their environment. By cleansing ourselves of bacteria and parasites, we become over-sensitized, causing our bodies to react violently to all sorts of things: meat, eggs, or diesel exhaust gases spewed out into the urban environment.
How did this situation come to pass? According to a physician at Tokyo Medical and Dental University, it was in 1963 that the term "cedar pollen allergy" first began to be used for sufferers. Afterwards. the number of patients began to soar after exceptionally heavy pollen levels in 1976 and 1979.
Those years coincided with the period when housing demand, and with it the demand for native woods soared, as postwar baby boomers began starting families. This was all part of a plan foreseen and implemented in the early 1950s to use "sugi" (Japanese cedar) and "hinoki" (Japanese cypress) for reforestation of the mountainous areas of east Japan. Those trees began reaching their maturity from the 1980s.
However Japan opened up its markets to foreign lumber imports from 1964, and as the imported woods undersold the native Japanese products, Japan's lumber self-dependence began dropping: from 95% in 1955 to 45% in 1970; 30% in 1980; and 20% since the year 2000. A trimmed cedar log, moreover, used to sell for 4,800 yen; presently it's under 2,000 yen.
Now you know why the offending trees aren't getting cut down. Want to hear something even more aggravating? The government is still subsidizing the planting of new cedar saplings, to the tune of 16 million trees per year. Which means 30 years from now, we can expect history to repeat itself.
Is it worth the suffering? You be the judge: Compared with the forestry industry's income from harvesting the cedars -- estimated at around 100 billion yen per year -- the pharmaceutical industry and related activities such as clinics, drug stores, etc. rake in three times as much -- 300 billion yen -- for pollen allergy outlays.
At least the planners' motives were sensible and realistic. The project to plant cedar forests came about through major efforts at conservation in the postwar era. High demand for wood products during the war had left forests denuded, and the resulting soil erosion and landslides during typhoons led to thousands of deaths in the 1940s. So at the very least they continue to serve this purpose well.
On the other hand, about one Japanese in five is believed to suffer from some type of hay fever. But seriously, three months a year of minor discomforts won't kill you, the magazine advises. Just take it in stride, blow your nose, down your pills, put on your "masuku," squirt your nasal spray, blow your nose again and be glad you're not among the 4 million people with a more serious respiratory problem, like asthma.
© Japan Today
35 Comments
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danalawton1@yahoo.com
Japan is not about the "people", it, like many countries, is about big business and politicians. Tokyo and the Kanto Plain overall is host to over 30 Million people, and every year those people suffer from this massive forest of Cedars around Mt. Fuji. As the wind blows from West to East.... so do the profits of Japan's Pharma companies grow. Why not slowly start to plant trees that do not cause allergies.....? Truthfully.... this might not even be about profits.... it could even be about Culture. The Japanese Culture.... one that is written in stone.... that cannot fathom change.... even for the good of all. Either way... facts are facts.... do something about them.
savethegaijin
slow clap
PSandoz
OK. I agree with the writers that pollen allergy is over-emphasized here in Japan — but can anyone explain why, at the age of 65, I am suddenly sneezing like a maniac?!
Wrembreck
This was obviously written by somebody who doesn't suffer with hay fever. It is HORRIBLE. It isn't just a matter of popping some pills and wearing a mask, in a bad year pills are only 40% effective at best. The horrible, horrible itch in your throat that you cannot scratch, nasal congestion that prevents you from breathing well enough to sleep (for 3 months), eyes so itchy that you want to scratch them out (as well as the splendid atopy look that appears around your eyes), the constant sneezing which causes frequent and occasionally painful nosebleeds....and don't get me started on how much of a pain it is to deal with laundry this season.
Cut the offending trees down, all of them!
Utrack
This is B...S...Being clean is a good thing.... Pollen is Pollen and lots of Pollen is a pain and Radioactive Pollen is worse.
http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/radioactive-cedar-pollen-detected-in-fukushima
shonanbb
danal....obviously you were not here during the meltdown. Winds do not just go from west to east. Get a clue.
By the way, I have bad asthma, so stop the complaining...allergies are nothing compared to asthma.
smithinjapan
Pollen is not exaggerated nor overemphasised. The high pollen count is FACT. The 'need' for masks, goggles, sprays, drugs, and other meds IS exaggerated, as can be seen by the ridiculous "pollen cutting minus-ion air-cleaning USB storage devices", or equally silly products that come out once in a while. You should just grin and bear it as much as possible.
shonanbb
Why the hail would anyone ever give me a thumbs down for stating a fact. Dumb
TigersTokyoDome
I suffer from both asthma and hay fever. I wouldn't say that either is less stress. They are both unpleasant.
Not sure why smith is banging on about non-related nationalist threads? Maybe he's referring to nationalist Japanese pollen being deliberately blown over to the poor Koreans.?
bjohnson23
why not allow the allergy sufferers to cut down 5 cedars each throughout Japan and replant a much more profitable tree for Japan. That would minimize the allergy impact in the future years.
gogogo
moron jp government... must be the same reason smoking has no warning... so people get sick and spend money
danalawton1@yahoo.com
@shonanabb.... damn.... sure you get winds from the south, you get them from the north too of course.... but the prevailing wind and weather goes from West to East. If it didn't then all that pollen would not be affecting people in Tokyo... which is East of Fuji.
shonanbb
danal: Wind patterns are caused by the Coriolis Effect.
So which direction are the prevailing trade winds in Hawaii? Do they go from West to East?
Look up weather patterns and Earth dynamics.
Have you ever tracked a Typhoon in the Pacific coming to Japan, or one in the Atlantic heading to the coast of the US? Seems to me that they move from East to West.......know what I'm saying?
sangetsu03
It's all rather pointless. People may spend 300 billion each year on allergy remedies, but these remedies are so far from effective that they would be better off spending it on beer.
I dread this time of year because I suffer from pollen allergies. The allergies are hit-and-miss, some years I get them, some years I don't. I have tried various prescription medicines, and either they don't work, or they leave my nose and throat so dry and uncomfortable that the allergy symptoms themselves are preferable.
Yubaru
You must be the comedy relief around here. Actually surprised that your posts stick around as long as they do.
nath
A bad pun is sour consolation for victims underneath a pollen allergy. A news source needs to think more about suffering not amusement.
Laguna
Not to mention that "forests" (plantations, really) consisting solely of cedar and cypress are biodiversity black holes. The trees provide habitat for very few birds or mammals, particularly with undergrowth choked for sunlight or purposely mowed down.. Walk through one and you'll be amazed at the deafening silence.
Plans should be made to gradually clear portions of these plantations and repopulate them with native deciduous trees. Not only will people but also wildlife breathe a sigh of relief.
kohakuebisu
Laguna's right, sugi forests are horrible monocultures. Without thinning, which is no longer economical, they produce a virtually 100% canopy, robbing other plants of light. So there is no understorey, and no understorey means no nuts or berries for animals, so animals, such as bears, end up on farmland or venturing into towns and villages for food
Japanese wiki says the cost of treating hayfever was 3,000 oku in 1998. At 100 yen to the dollar for ease of calculation, that's three billion USD a year, or about 2500 yen per capita in Japan. In 2005, Dai Ichi Seimei calculated the economic cost of people staying in the house during hayfever season was a drop in consumption equal to 0.6% of GDP.
ClippetyClop
I wasn't aware that entire cedar forests aren't being cut down because it isn't cost effective. That is truly a tragedy. Is this really true? I would have loved to have seen the mountains of Japan 100 years ago, they must have been something very special
justbcuzisay
It is true. And as I sit here typing while sneezing and rubbing my eyes, I dream of ways to make people want to cut those darn trees. I've thought of ways to support the unemployeed by having them learn to trim and cut the trees, I've dreamed of there being a boom of 'made in Japan' making people want to use sugi wood, I have even tried to convince my friends and family that allergy sufferers are so miserable, that they would gladly pay money to get those darn trees trimmed.
But alas, from the reaction I've gotten from trying to discuss these kinds of solutions, I think they might be right that the government rather keep the trees and the economical benefits.
ClippetyClop
@justbcuzisay, I feel for you, I really do. It must be infuriating, such a short sighted response by a past government and one that the present one has no inclination to address. Completely unsatisfactory for everyone involved. Free chainsaws for all I say
kohakuebisu
Japanese forests are uneconomical to harvest because they are invariably on slopes with poor access where hardcore machinery can't be used. With commercial timber, the tree is felled, stripped of branches, and cut to length by a single machine in seconds. Check out any tree harvester machine on Youtube. On a Japanese hill, some guy has to cut the tree and strip the branches manually, and then pull the cut logs out to a road on a wire and winch, all set up manually. That's assuming its economical to put a road in in the first place. A lot of tree plantations have never been thinned, so the timber is also low quality.
MrBum
How did they plan on cutting them down when they planted them then? I mean they were intended to be used for lumber, right? Not attacking you, just curious.
It really shouldn't matter if there's a profit in it though. This is a national health issue. Millions have to suffer for a quarter of the year because of a mistake the government made. Spring is supposed to be one of the best times of the year, but ever since I got the kafunsho I can't stand it.
Also, can some one please tell me why in the hell are they're still planting more of the damn trees?
Anonymous Jones
Japan does have this weird interest in hay fever and pollen allergies and even better is that many of my Japanese friends believe this is special to only Japan. The city of Atlanta is literally coated with the yellow stuff in the high seasons with pollen counts listed with the weather information. However, a good dose of claritin will fix you right up. Won't go into the inefficacy of Japanese over-the-counter-drugs.
<> https://www.google.co.jp/search?q=atlanta+pollen&hl=ja&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj2zcL-9uLLAhVl5qYKHWdNCuMQ_AUIBygB&biw=1366&bih=655
Tessa
Yep. Today I had a conversation with a college-educated middle-aged lady who was astonished to learn that foreigners like me get kafunsho! She could not believe what she was hearing, and kept asking me over and over again "Is it true? Do you really? Are you sure?" I just know what her dinner table conversation is going to be about tonight.
cleo
It blows both ways. I have a number of friends who cannot believe (and are perhaps a bit miffed) that while they are suffering streaming red eyes and runny noses, I suffer no effects at all from kafun.
Tessa
Don't forget to explain about your higher body temperature!
Rik314
Because you have filled up. It hit me all at once in 2000. I didn't even know what it was. The doc, when I finally went, said, "Kafusho" and explained that your immune system is like a glass of water slowly filling up and once there, you're gonna hate Feb-April evermore if you live here.
Triring
Sugi is not the only cause, Hinoki also has a nasty punch to it.
Sugi that were planted in the 50's are the main source and will continue until they reach full maturity in another 25 years. Sugi are being replanted by the way just not at the rate people who are affected wants it to be.
ThonTaddeo
If I were making a compilation of the best "Japan Inc." articles, this one would be near the top, because it has it all:
blaming foreign countries for something ("that nefarious imported lumber is decreasing our lumber self-sufficiency!")
insinuations that lower consumer prices are bad for the country (that stretch of lumber only costs 2,000 yen... but by not being harvested because it's too cheap, it's the cause of your hay fever!)
the solution to discomfort (this time, hay fever) is good old fashioned gaman!And then there's this gem:
One of these things is not like the others. Ah, perhaps if not for our desire to cleanse ourselves of bacteria, we could have breathed in the diesel exhaust gases of a million automobiles just like pure oxygen!
Himajin
Could be the kousa as well. It can do a job on you, too!
The dreaded pine pollen! It really depends on the person. I went to the Atlanta area the first time in the end of March, when there was pollen everywhere. It was my first exposure to it. It started out with a runny nose. By evening I looked like a chipmunk, my lymph nodes swelled up, and I ran a low-grade fever. It was horrible. Zyrtec helped somewhat but didn't suppress it completely. After that I started taking Zyrtec before I got on the plane if I planned to go in the spring, and it was much better. It was the sheer amount of it, I guess...a visible inch or two along the sides of all the roads.
inkochi
Do people still say 'Sheesh!'?
Maybe 'Kafunshou ha kyou taihen desu ne!' here.
wanderlust
Research into asthma, allergy and atopi back in the 1990s showed that the three 'cleanest' countries in Asia/ Oceania had the highest rates of asthma, allergy and atopi - Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
Something to be said for allowing the kids to play outside and get dirty....
GW
I feel sorry for those that suffer this plague.......
Like others I HATE the sugi plantations, they are NOT FORESTS!!! And yes they are pretty devoid of life.
Another thing Is they are prone to landslides. Next time one hits look at the trees often there are lots of sugi!
Cutting them down & planting other VARIOUS types of trees is what abe's govt shud be doing instead of pouring concrete!