Japan is not without sin. Indeed, when it was industrializing in the last century, Japan was as famous for environmental catastrophes as for conservation. Minamata disease, the consequence of an industrial mercury discharge, caused muscular and neurological damage for thousands of Japanese; dioxin pollution has only recently been addressed. In the 1960s, Tokyo's air had the sort of reputation that Beijing's does today. Japan's household carbon dioxide emissions have increased an estimated 40% since 1990. A visit to any department store is to bear witness to an excess of wrapping and packaging.