On November 24th, 2007, activists in Japan will join over a million people in 60 countries in consciously dropping out of the omnipresent tug of war that is consumerism by celebrating Buy Nothing Day (BND). Adbusters co-founder and principal BND spokesman Kalle Lasn states that, “Buy Nothing Day isn't just about changing your routine for one day. It’s about starting a lasting lifestyle commitment. With over six billion people on the planet, it is the responsibility of the most affluent – the upper 20% that consumes 80% of the world’s resources – to set out on a new path.” In Japan, the main organizers of BND are Buy Nothing Day Japan (www.bndjapan.org) and The Sloth Club (www.sloth.gr.jp/) but there are many individuals planning their own celebrations. With events happening across the country, the best way to stay up to date is to check the Buy Nothing Day Japan events website: www.bndjapan.org/english2/hands_and_feet/events.html. But some of the central activities include Kyoto's 9th annual Zenta Claus Meditation in front of the Hankyu Department Store (Shijo-Kawaramachi), Osaka's food and blanket distribution for the homeless (7pm at Kintetsu, Fuse Station out the South Exit by the Big Thermometer), and Tokyo's slacker Shibuya leafletting party (at the Shibuya-Hachiko Exit, starting at 11am till the evening). Plus, on December 2nd, there will be a BND related barter market in Gifu's Cafe Purana from 11am to 4pm, reviving a Japanese tradition that was lost in the post-war period.

BND started humbly in Vancouver, Canada in 1992 with a simple idea: “try not to shop for a day, and see how your view of our world changes.” Since its rapid growth in size and interest, BND has also faced increased criticism. Critics like Andrew Potter (www.rebelsell.com/blog/) have taken issue with its ability to affect real change, perceiving it as only of mainly symbolic importance. “[If] you go to work on Buy Nothing Day, you are actually making someone purchase something. So if you’re really worried that we live in a consumer society, the real target shouldn’t be advertising and consumerism, it should be production and work. And if you think we ought to do something about it, take the French model and advocate a 35-hour work week.”

For a networker of BND Japan, the activities on November 24th are important because of their symbolic value, and also the attention they draw to different organizations working year round to create measurable change. “BND itself is a day to connect all sorts of movements from environmental to workers rights and very specific issues like the struggle against a single shopping mall to general issues like revising the GDP - its a day for realizing that all these issues are interconnected [by] the economy”. By creating a model for an alternative lifestyle, its organizers see BND as offering a chance to reflect on the larger social forces that constrain people from choosing more desirable and healthy ways of living. It's role is as a starting place for significant changes, modestly towards a formal Buy Nothing Day holiday, a “respite from the compulsion to produce and consume”, and ambitiously towards a new politics based on “global peace and fairness, and true cost economics (not neo-classical GDP economics)”.

For more information on the origins and developments of BND, check out adbusters.org/metas/eco/bnd/.