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Welcome to the SDGs in the News Podcast.
This is Susan Yoshimura, Managing Editor of Japan 2 Earth, coming to you from Tokyo.
Today, we bring you another English article on Japan and the SDGs.
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The disappearing Japanese hair in the Year of the Rabbit
The Japanese hair is vanishing from green spaces in communities, sending a warning signal that we need to rethink how to coexist in harmony with nature.
The year 2023 is the year of the rabbit in the Chinese zodiac.
Rabbits and hairs are familiar animals to Japanese people, going back as far as the hair of Inaba myth in Japan's oldest historical record, the Kojiki.
They are often used to symbolize a leap forward, as well as prosperity of offspring.
Most people in Japan have had the chance to admire them, perhaps mainly at zoos.
But in fact, the wild Japanese hair, Lepus brachioras, a species endemic to Japan and once a typical resident of Satoyama landscapes, is on the verge of disappearing from human settlements.
The Japanese hair has brown fur that blends in with grass and trees, ears that stand up to detect its natural enemies, and muscular hind legs that make it an agile runner.
The number of times I've seen hairs has definitely decreased over the past 10 years.
They still feel familiar, but they have become strangers to the park, reported Takato Kobayashi, 35, of Fusion Nagaike, a non-profit that manages Nagaike Park in Hachioji City.
The expansive park's area is equivalent to the size of about four Tokyo domes.
Adjacent to Tama New Town in Tokyo, a massive housing development that spans four cities including Hachioji and Machida, the park and nearby green areas are among only a handful of places where Japanese hairs coexist with humans.
The hairs live inconspicuously in the wooded areas and grasslands of the area's vast Tama Hills, which are interspersed with large housing estates and farmlands.
The Japanese hair is classified as a separate species from the European rabbit, which has been commonly bred and domesticated.
While the common rabbit digs holes in the ground to hide, the hair shelters in above-ground thickets of low vegetation.
In Japan of the 1950s, 60s and 70s, forests were felled to supply lumber.
Grasslands were created as a result, and the hair population rose temporarily.
However, it began to drop from the late 1990s.
A decline in forestry and increase in abandoned farmland resulted in the disappearance of the grassy fields and thickets favored by the Japanese hair.
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In areas closer to urban centers, green spaces continued to shrink alongside residential land development.
Natural fields and mountains were transformed into artificial forests thick with coniferous trees.
In both cases, the reduction of deciduous forests and woods with young trees resulted in the retreat of grasses and shrubs that are the hair's food sources.
Even today, the Japanese hair can be found in most areas of the Japanese archipelago, excluding Hokkaido and Okinawa.
But its numbers are declining nationwide.
On the red list published by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, 2020 edition, the Japanese hair is an endangered species, threatened to, vulnerable, for the northern Tama region.
The Japanese hair, while rarely seen in the present day, has a long history of coexistence with humans.
A very prolific animal, the hair has symbolized abundant offspring and ease in childbirth and is revered in Japanese faith.
As seen in Usagi, a traditional children's song about a rabbit in the harvest moon, and in the longstanding ballad Furusato, which begins with lyrics about a rabbit and a mountain, the rabbit is a creature associated with landscapes of Japan's past.
Fusion Nagaix Kobayashi explains, The Japanese hair is the symbol of our Saitama.
There is value to having hairs be a familiar part of people's daily lives.
The current situation with the Japanese hair is an opportunity for people to think about how we as humans coexist with other living creatures.
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Until next time, this is Susan Yoshimura of Japan to Earth, signing off.
