How green are Japan's urbanites? (Japan Times)

The Japan Times lists just a few more areas in which, as posted below, Japan is not as splendidly "green" as believed:

"Yet in a recent poll of consumers from 14 countries by National Geographic and the international polling firm GlobeScan, Japanese houses were found to be the second-least sustainable, only outranking ones in the United States.

I think they mean "only outranked by the ones in the US." Follow the link for more.

Added at 1227pm: And another JT article by Takamitsu Sawa on PM Fukuda's low-carbon society:

Since the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, the Japanese government has done little or nothing. As I recall, the only actions taken were enacting the 1998 Energy Conservation Law and encouraging people to dress lightly in summer to save energy. As a result, the volume of greenhouse gases emitted in Japan in fiscal 2006 was 6.2 percent above 1990 levels....

Again, follow the link for a relatively detailed and thorough examination of the internal opposition Japan faces in regards to Kyoto.