Slow Life Tokyo
Monday, June 23rd, 2008By Nina Kahori Fallenbaum
If you’ve ever been trampled by a bag-toting obaachan in Shinjuku station as she runs for the last train (why she’s out shopping at 12:30 a.m., I have never understood), the concept of “slow life” in frenetic Tokyo probably is borderline comical. But LOHAS (“Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability”) has taken hold of Japan like the plague, and its now teetering between a serious subculture and just another boomu, or trend.
The term was first introduced to Japan in 2002 when sociologist Paul Ray, Ph.D. was invited to introduced his concept of “the Cultural Creatives” at a Tokyo symposium. In his book of the same title, he describes a growing sector of society that is interested in health, the environment, and spirituality, against wanton consumerism and waste, but willing to spend top dollar (or yen) on products that are high-quality and not harmful to the Earth. Co-written with his wife Sherry Ruth Anderson, Ph.D., the book was the first to explain why natural-food and cosmetics companies were posting record profits all over the U.S. and Europe, and how companies could better court these “green consumers.”