"Every
issue of the Kyoto Journal is like a beautiful paperbound book,
ninety-six pages of the most beautifully and straightforwardly designed
magazine around. It is the unofficial English language rag of expatriate
foreigners in Japan, though it tends to cover the whole of Asian culture
from nation to nation. It has been around for about two decades, and no
writers or artists are ever paid for their contributions, making it one
of the most consistently high-quality "open source" publications
anywhere..."
"I don't know of any magazine where the design and content so seamlessly
blend as Kyoto Journal. The English-language quarterly's circumspect
cultural critique is never compromised but is in fact strengthened by
the graphic design. The peaceful, stylish design is just as original and
scintillating as the magazine's approach to the ideas, interviews, poems
and discussions it contains... Kyoto Journal is forever looking
for original ways of depicting people and life... We recommend it highly."
In 2004 KJ was nominated by the Utne editors for awards under three categories: General Excellence,
Design, and Cultural/Social Coverage.
Previous nominations included Art & Design
Excellence (award winner, 1998), Local/ Regional
Coverage, Writing Excellence, Design,
General Excellence, and Best Essays.
A
non-profit volunteer-based quarterly magazine established in 1986, Kyoto Journal offers interviews, essays, translations, humor,
fiction, poetry and reviews, accompanied by memorable photo-essays,
original illustrations and award-winning design.
No hype, minimal
advertising, maximum reading value.
NEWS UPDATE:Our first digital issue, #76, has been sent out as a preview to subscribersand contributors. It will not be on sale until we post our new website — which is yes, STILL under construction as of the beginning of February 2012! Getting closer though.... More details here...
Coming here from Kyoto Visitors Guide March 2012 issue?
— Kyoto information here, more to be posted with the new site.
A FREE full-length 94-page digital sample issue (KJ #73) is now available on ISSUU, here
For a daily ongoing KJ connection, check out our FaceBook page
This richly informative and lavishly illustrated edition features wide-ranging contributions by more than 50 writers, photographers and artists, specially prepared for distribution this fall at COP10 in Nagoya, the UN’s 10th Conference of Parties to the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD). An extensive 22-page section explores the ideal – and troubling present-day reality – of Japan’s satoyama: rural areas where people have lived with the land and on it without spoiling it over many generations, preserving and even promoting biodiversity. Plus over 30 diverse exclusive online reports — all downloadable.
Newly posted online special features:
Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo:
An ethno-biological meditation
— Adam Hartzell interviews director Jessica Oreck I’ve always wanted to make films about ethno-biology, the way that whole cultures interact with the natural world. What’s important with my films is that they are accessible for people that don’t have any experience in nature at all.Working in the butterfly exhibit at the Natural History Museum, you hear more kids ask if the butterfly is broken than if it’s dead. Which to me is a pretty big sign that there is something wrong with our basic understanding of the natural world.
From COP-10, Nagoya: One Artist's Journey — Lucinda Cowing This table set is made almost entirely from driftwood. Each salvaged piece has a unique shape, texture, colour, and often other characteristics that suggest a story which could span years or decades.
Of the six thousand valuable lessons that might be offered to a persistent traveler, here is one I received. Over the years, in speaking with Eskimo people — Yup’ik and Inupiat in Alaska and Inuit in Canada — I came to understand that they prefer to avoid the way we use collective nouns in the West to speak about a species. Their tendency is not to respond to a question about what it is that “caribou” do, but to say instead what an individual caribou once did in a particular set of circumstances — in that place, at that time of year, in those weather conditions, with these other animals around.
Barry Lopez is a writer and essayist best known for his books Arctic Dreams, Of Wolves and Men, and Crossing Open Ground. In 2008, he guest edited two volumes of the journal Manoa with Frank Stewart, Maps of Reconciliation (see KJ review) and Gates of Reconciliation..
The Nature of Value
and The Value of Nature
Pavan Sukhdev
A study was begun a couple of years ago which is now called TEEB: The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity. In its interim report, published in May [2008], one of its conclusions was that the ongoing loss of forests represents a loss of utility and services to humanity of the order of two to four and half trillion dollars. That’s two to four and a half million, million dollars every year! And this loss has been going on every year for many years. This compares rather significantly with the loss of one and half to two trillion dollars, which is the system loss of financial capital as a result of what is in fact the biggest financial crisis the world has ever seen...
Pavan Sukhdev is Managing Director of Global Markets, Deutsche Bank India, Study Leader, G8 + 5 global study on the Economics of Ecosystem Degradation and Biodiversity Loss, and Head of UNEP’s Green Economy Initiative, a major project demonstrating that the greening of economies is a new engine for growth, employment and the reduction of poverty.
Biodiversity as well as our arctic ice caps, virgin forests and maternal oceans all appear to be inescapably doomed under every politically plausible scenario today. Extinction rates, deforestation, glacier melt, ocean acidity and cloistered methane release are all accelerating faster than even pessimists foresaw. Whatever promising tech and policy fixes we may have at hand, there is clearly no visible “political will” to make the turnaround.
What is driving the devastation? Whether referring to the latest data or just common sense, many witnesses now agree that vast corporate bodies and their global political might are causing most of our ecological malaise these days and fiercely resisting every treaty that offers real cures.
W. David Kubiak is a Project Censored Award-winning journalist, Kyoto Journal contributing editor, COP10.org coordinator, and director of Big Medicine, a think tank researching the corporate takeover of our countries, cultures and consciousness.
COP10: Cop-out or Coevolve?
Eric Johnston
Delegates, when you arrive in Nagoya, Japan this October for the UN’s 10th conference on biodiversity, you’ll be meeting at a decisive moment. For the agreements you reach, or fail to, at COP10* may well determine whether many forms of life survive or die out — including the large-brained, spiritually-inclined but as yet self-defeating, tool-making ape — a relative newcomer to this biodiverse world.
Moreover, given the bitter failure of last December’s climate change conference in Copenhagen, what you achieve in Nagoya will affect not only biodiversity but also global warming. COP10 in Japan is the last major UN conference before the world gathers in Mexico in late November for yet another round of climate change talks. Delegates and NGOs heading to Cancun will be nervously watching the outcome of your negotiations, and your success or failure will directly impact their chances for reaching a climate change agreement that makes a genuine difference.
Eric Johnston is Deputy Editor for The Japan Times Osaka office and veteran of UN conferences in Japan and abroad, including the 1997 Kyoto Protocol conference and the 2009 Copenhagen conference. He will cover the COP10 conference for The Japan Times.
SPECIAL SECTION: THE WORLDS OF SATOYAMA
Satoyama: The Ideal and the Real
Brian Williams
Literally hamlet-mountain, satoyama has become something of a buzzword, and features extensively in Japanese government literature for the October 2010 COP10 conference on biodiversity in Nagoya. Like all buzzwords, satoyama is often used with less than complete comprehension of what the concept really entails. This is problematic, especially given the commendable calls already being made for a “global satoyama.” A more comprehensive understanding of both the ideal of satoyama and the contemporary reality are clearly needed to guide efforts towards a more sustainable society. This satoyama section of KJ 75 aims to contribute to such a clearer understanding.
So where is biodiversity? And how can we avoid losing it? Biodiversity is everywhere. There’s probably a lot of it in your kitchen. But when it comes to big-time biodiversity conservation, Protected Areas (PAs) are a major asset and a key ally. They cover 13 percent of the Earth’s surface and contain the highest concentrations of biodiversity. Strengthening of the PAs is obviously a key strategy. That said, the majority of bio-diversity occurs outside PAs in areas dedicated for agriculture, forestry, fisheries, human occupancy, mining, tourism, etc. Managing these areas is also critical for biodiversity conservation. The integration, or “mainstreaming” of biodiversity-friendly objectives into these production sectors constitutes a key vehicle for achieving sound overall biodiversity management.
Midori Paxton is a UNDP Regional Technical Adviser (Ecosystems and Natural Resources) for the Asia Pacific Region based in Bangkok. She previously worked in Namibia as coordinator for the UNDP/GEF-supported Strengthening the Protected Area Network (SPAN) Project.
Price: ¥1,500 per issue / US$15 / Canada $15 / AUS$20 / EURO10 / HONG KONG $85 / KOREAN WON 20,000
However, please note that we are at present in transition to a new bank account and Paypal online payment system. We hope to be able to process orders and subs from May 2011.
SUBSCRIPTIONS
As of Spring 2011, KJ will switch from print issues to quarterly digital editions. Same quality content and outstanding design, just a different delivery system with a lot more potential that we are eager to explore.
Subscriptions will cost just $50 — for five issues.
Single issues, $12
For
fresh news on KJ, see Facebook, here.
And at Deep
Kyoto
A highly-recommended KJ-associated blog :
10,000 Things "
Ten Thousand Things" is a Buddhist expression representing
the dynamic interconnection and simultaneous unity and diversity
of everything in the universe.
Our goal is to create a netroots venue that supports the
culture of positive peace: actions for inner & outer peace, sustainability,
diversity, social justice, & affirmative creative expression––in
Asia (and everywhere).
–– Kim Hughes, Jen Teeter, & Jean Downey
A KJ-related site focusing on the COP-10 Biodiversity conference in Nagoya:
COP10.org
A progressive, non-affiliated news clearinghouse, brainstorming forum, and resource index for activists working on biodiversity related issues.
