Great Pacific Garbage Patch

            Have you ever heard of Great Pacific Garbage Patch? For those who have never heard, it is an environmental issue in which trash mainly from Japan and the United States are accumulated in the center of the Pacific Ocean as a result of North Atlantic Gyre.

            I just found this serious and global environmental issue from my geography class and was totally shocked that Japan was the large contributor of throwing away garbage in the ocean. In Japan, I used to hear that Asian Dust and air pollutions from China were very problemic for Japan, and I see many people complained about China`s loose environmental policy. Nevertheless, I have never heard of my Japanese friends and media talking about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Although Japan should be largely responsible for this issue, many Japanese people including myself are not aware of this global issue. (which is also problemic!)

            I think when I consider any global issue, I cannot judge the responsibility for it based only on my personal experience which is often influenced by Japanese media because my country might be doing something unacceptable in other parts of the world. From this finding, I realized that "perspectives" are very important whenever we evaluate the responsibility of any country for the global issues because a seemingly environmentally friendly country like Japan - at least I think Japan is - can be a monster in "unknown" environmental issues.