Uploaded March 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Keibo Oiwa is a professor, cultural anthropologist, and a widely respected philosopher and organizer in Japan. He co-authored, with David Suzuki, a book about bottom-up movements for peace, human rights and environmentalism, called ‘The Japan We Never Knew’. He is the founder of The Sloth Club – an NGO that promotes slow and sustainable living. The Sloth Club, coupled with Keibo’s book Slow is Beautiful: Culture as Slowness, have fostered a new appreciation of rural life and a simpler way of living.
In this episode, Keibo offers us a portrait of a Japan moving in two different directions. He sounds the alarm about the cultural and spiritual devastation that has been a deeply tragic cost of Japan’s pursuit of globalized development. But he also speaks of a widespread cultural resurgence – a movement towards regeneration, community and nature. He highlights cultural “keywords” that can be rediscovered in the Japanese cultural fabric, and which can be used as a guide for these emerging movements.
Watch the trailer here: youtu.be/HJ4k9DhdnGI?si=REdN1N1pAcrj3aK7
Follow the Planet Local Voices interview series: localfutures.org/programs/planet-local-voices
Listen to this interview as a podcast:
localfutures.org/programs/global-to-local/local-futures-podcast
Local Futures is an international non-profit organization, dedicated to renewing ecological and social well-being by strengthening communities and local economies. To learn more about our work, visit:
localfutures.org
Subscribe to our email newsletter:
localfutures.org/sign-up-to-our-newsletter
Keibo Oiwa is a professor, cultural anthropologist, and a widely respected philosopher and organizer in Japan. He co-authored, with David Suzuki, a book about bottom-up movements for peace, human rights and environmentalism, called ‘The Japan We Never Knew’. He is the founder of The Sloth Club – an NGO that promotes slow and sustainable living. The Sloth Club, coupled with Keibo’s book Slow is Beautiful: Culture as Slowness, have fostered a new appreciation of rural life and a simpler way of living.
In this episode, Keibo offers us a portrait of a Japan moving in two different directions. He sounds the alarm about the cultural and spiritual devastation that has been a deeply tragic cost of Japan’s pursuit of globalized development. But he also speaks of a widespread cultural resurgence – a movement towards regeneration, community and nature. He highlights cultural “keywords” that can be rediscovered in the Japanese cultural fabric, and which can be used as a guide for these emerging movements.
Watch the trailer here: youtu.be/HJ4k9DhdnGI?si=REdN1N1pAcrj3aK7
Follow the Planet Local Voices interview series: localfutures.org/programs/planet-local-voices
Listen to this interview as a podcast:
localfutures.org/programs/global-to-local/local-futures-podcast
Local Futures is an international non-profit organization, dedicated to renewing ecological and social well-being by strengthening communities and local economies. To learn more about our work, visit:
localfutures.org
Subscribe to our email newsletter:
localfutures.org/sign-up-to-our-newsletter
