Forest and Abacus
A Future Map of Earth and Capitalism
Balancing Two Forces
The capitalism Eiichi Shibusawa sought to establish in Japan was guided by the ideal of asking how everyone could live as equals—an idea that overlaps with what we now call the SDGs.
Just as Eiichi sought to reconcile two seemingly opposing forces—“the Analects,” or morality, and “the abacus,” or economics—we are now being asked how to balance “the forest,” or the environment, with “the abacus,” or capitalism: two forces that appear incompatible.
Relationships and the Nature of Capital
In pursuit of that ideal, the author has carried out environmental work in Japan and abroad, including through JICA and the establishment of Huis Ten Bosch, while giving numerous lectures and advocating and practising satoyama capitalism as an alternative to money-driven capitalism. He argues that, to keep money-driven capitalism from advancing any further, we must reconsider the relationship between forests and people, as well as solidarity among people within small local communities.
Envisioning the Future through Ways of Living
Drawing on a wealth of examples—the circumstances that led Eiichi to introduce modern capitalism, how Japanese people lived during the Edo period, practices that were still part of our lives in the not-so-distant past, and the ways of life of key individuals in regions today—the book asks what potential has always existed within us and what kind of future only we can create.
