After analysing Japan's economic and political problems at length, Koichi Kato suddenly turns rather emotional. As he shifts his attention to the environment, Mr Kato, who heads a prominent faction in Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), harks back to an idealised golden age, when the people of the Japanese islands lived more in tune with nature. "Now," says Mr Kato, "there are no trees on our mountains. There are no vegetables, no woods, no fish." The confidence Japan once gained from economic development, he notes, has clearly vanished, and with it the compensation for the loss of a more harmonious life. "Even many poor countries believe in something," says Mr Kato. "What is our basic value?"
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