SLOTH CLUB,
JAPAN
Keibo Oiwa is sitting in downtown Tokyo, sipping coffee and cheerfully chatting about social revolution. There is something rotten in Japan and Keibo and his friends think they have the answer.
"I teach cultural anthropology at Meiji Gakuin University. I deal with young people every day. They have good ethics and environmental ideals but, as soon as they start job hunting, they become different people.
ėThey try to fit into overly structured environments and become depressed. They develop low self-esteem. The working environment is Japan is so bad there is an actual word for dying from over-work."
At the same time as Keibo was noticing the desperation of Japanese youth, he also noticed something else. "In 1999, I was on a research trip in Ecuador. We visited a small community on the banks of the Capayas River. We were walking through the streets and we saw a sloth bound, beaten, waiting to be eaten. It was deeply touching.
ėWe bought it -- it was about $5 -- and set it free in a nature reserve. It got us thinking about sloth lifestyles. About how they are the opposite of our 'more, faster, tougher'. Sloths are 'less, slower, non-violent'. Something to aspire too."
So Keibo got together with Australian singer/activist Anya Light and Ryuichi Nakamura, a Japanese businessman who was growing organic coffee in Ecuador so that the locals would have an economic alternative to a copper mine. They started the Sloth Club, "an eco-cultural movement towards a new lifestyle". The motto: "Slow Is Beautiful".
The goals include setting up a sloth reserve, helping local communities develop sustainable industries such as eco-tourism, start a Sloth Club line of eco-friendly goods, publish a newsletter, hold seminars, lead trips and run workshops. Pretty busy schedule for a bunch of sloths.
The Sloth Club is not alone in trying to key modern life down a notch. Explains Keibo: "We are paralleling other movements around the world, for example the Slow Food movement in France that was started as a reaction to fast food [they eat meals that take hours to prepare and cook]. Our movement is designed for Japan and other highly developed countries. Instead of walking from A to B, we want people to wander."
This is not a new idea, continues Keibo: "All around Japan they're local traditions of playing, of wasting time. We want to incorporate them in a new trend against our efficient, fast paced, civilization. We want to re-appropriate pleasure. Today, if there's no TV, kids are stymied. We don't know what to do if entertainment is not provided for us."
Part of that process is encouraging Japanese student to look beyond the constraints of the traditional job market. With the crash of the economy, jobs-for-life at a giant corporation are a nostalgic memory anyway.
Keibo want graduates to actually enjoy their jobs and get personal satisfaction from them. "We're trying to get them to start new ecological businesses." Already some of his ex-students are importing and distributing organic coffee (with part of the proceeds going to the Sloth Club).
Part of the problem in Japan, thinks Keibo, is literally structural. "Japanese cities are probably the ugliest and most chaotic because of the housing situation. My brother [Goichi Oiwa], who is an architect, is developing new forms of housing. For example, suspended, swinging furniture. Swinging furniture has proven to be very soothing for people with disabilities. We are all disabled more or less. Eventually we would like to open up a swing hotel, Cafe, educational institution, etc.. We are trying to encourage people to just hanging around. Literally."
Keibo is finding inspiration all over the world. "A native of elder in Alert Bay, Canada, is a member of the Sloth Club. He told me: 'It was our wisdom that we never argued the European fallacy of the lazy Indian. Before they came, we were fine and happy, enjoying ourselves.' Other Native Canadian friends are saying with a smile that maybe, finally, the time has come for the dumb and lazy Indians."
The ultimate goal of the Sloth Club is nothing less than a re-evaluation of the concept of time. Concludes Keibo: "If you say 'quick' or 'fast' three times in one day, your membership is suspended for the following day. We are not anti-labour, we are anti modern time slavery. As a culture, we have lost the local sense of time, the one that is in tune in with the sun and the seasons. Now we are supposed to think: time is money. What an obscene the idea!"
He glances and his watch and puts down his coffee with a start. He has to rush to a meeting about the Sloth Club web site. Then another one on designs for the club logo. And another on possible products. Then he has to get back to the university in time to meet student. And then.....
The slow revolution is picking up speed.
