The idea that nature is dirty, that shiny smooth surfaces and straight lines are preferable to the messy contours of mountains and rivers, is one of the strangest attitudes to have taken root in modern Japan, given the country’s traditions. The mountains are getting covered with concrete because that’s the creation of something beautiful. A big and expensive concrete plane is beautiful in people’s eyes because it is progress and the more concrete they see the more progressive, modern and wealthy they feel.
