Japan’s Nature Is Not Disappearing
It Is Losing Human Hands
By TACHIOKAYA
In Japan, we often hear two stories at the same time.
One says that nature is disappearing.
The other says that wild animals, especially bears, are coming too close to people.
At first glance, these stories seem contradictory.
But from where we stand at TACHIOKAYA, working daily with plants and greenery delivered into dense urban spaces, they are deeply connected.
What We See From the City Side
TACHIOKAYA works with plants that live inside cities.
Office interiors. Commercial buildings. Small urban spaces that rely on greenery not for survival, but for balance.
From this perspective, one thing is very clear.
Cities in Japan are not rejecting nature.
They are actively importing it.
Plants are carefully selected.
Light, humidity, airflow, and maintenance schedules are controlled.
Nature in cities survives because humans are present.
This is not artificial nature.
It is supported nature.
The Silent Collapse of Rural Green
Outside the cities, something very different is happening.
Rural Japan is not losing forests.
It is losing people.
Villages that once maintained forests, fields, and satoyama landscapes are shrinking rapidly.
As the population ages and young generations move to cities, the human role in nature quietly disappears.
Without thinning, clearing, and seasonal care, forests grow dense and dark.
Underbrush takes over.
Food cycles collapse.
From the outside, this looks like rich wilderness.
From inside Japan, it looks like abandonment.
Bears Are Not the Problem 🐻
The increase in bear sightings is often framed as a wildlife crisis.
But bears are not suddenly becoming aggressive.
They are responding logically to environmental imbalance.
When forests are unmanaged, natural food sources decline.
When villages empty out, the boundary between human and animal space fades.
From our perspective, bears are not invading cities.
Humans are retreating from nature.
This is not a failure of animals.
It is a failure of maintenance.
A Lesson We Learn From Urban Plants
In cities, plants teach us something important.
A plant placed in an office does not survive because it is strong.
It survives because someone checks the soil.
Because someone notices when leaves change color.
Because someone is responsible.
Nature does not always need to be wild.
Sometimes, it needs to be watched.
Japan’s traditional landscapes existed not despite humans, but with them.
Why This Matters Beyond Japan
Many countries see Japan as an environmental success story.
High forest coverage. Clean cities. Visible greenery.
But what Japan is experiencing now may be a preview.
Aging societies.
Urban concentration.
Rural abandonment.
Nature does not simply heal itself when humans disappear.
It often becomes unstable.
This is not a call to dominate nature.
It is a reminder that coexistence requires presence.
Closing Thought From TACHIOKAYA
At TACHIOKAYA, we believe plants belong where people live.
Not as decoration, but as living systems supported by care.
Japan’s real crisis is not that nature is vanishing.
It is that the hands that once shaped and supported it are fading away.
Bears are only the messengers.
I have received permission to post it.
All photos：TACHIOKAYA
The beautiful Japanese nature harmonizes with the work.
※It was added and corrected in June 2025.
🗂 Categories: Nature / Otaku / Fusion
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