Mottainai

Mottainai (Japanese: もったいない or 勿体無い) is a Japanese phrase conveying a sense of regret over waste, or to state that one does not deserve something because it is too good. The term can be translated to English as "What a waste!"^{[1] [2]} or the old saying, "Waste not, want not."^[3]

Early Uses in Clasical Literature (13th to 14th Centry)

An archaic Japanese dictionary dates the use of the term "mottainai" back to the 13th-century.^[4] Two frequently-cited early examples of usages of mottainashi, given in both Kōjien and Daigenkai, are the Genpei Jōsuiki and the Taiheiki .^[5]

Appearance of Medival Performing Arts (14th to 15th Centry)

A form of the word, motaina (モタイナ) appears in the late-14th or early-15th century Noh play Aritōshi  [ja], apparently in a sense close to (1).^[6]

Interpretations in Edo-Period Literature (18th Centry)

The 18th-century Kokugaku philologist Motoori Norinaga, in the preface to his 1798 treatise Tamaarare ('Ice Crystals (like) Jewels'; 玉あられ) designed to stir people up from their sleepy acquiescence in acquired customs that were not authentically native, and was critical of the use of the word to express gratitude.

He felt its use for such a purpose (along with those of katajikenashi and osoreōi) was vitiated by its ultimate derivation from imitating forms of Chinese rhetoric and greetings.^[7]

Modern Scholarly Perspectives (20th Centry)

In his 1934 essay Nihon-seishin to Bukkyō, the Buddhologist Katō Totsudō (加藤咄堂; 1870-1949) included the "aversion to wastefulness" (mottainai) in a putative series of what he considered to be "core Japanese personality traits".^{[8] [9]}

Background: Historical Context Leading to the Rise of Mottainai (20th Centry)

In the 1990s, Japan fell into a recession and economic insecurity spread. In this situation, the word mottainai begun to attract attention once again as a virtue that was being lost.^[10] Ideas about environmental awareness and reducing waste which had developed since the 1970 were reinterpreted. As a result, mottainai was reconstructed as a symbolic keyword that concern for waste, respect for resources, and well-being.^[11] Since the 2000s, mottainai has featured in many areas, such as books, TV programs, government campaigns, and projects by companies and NGOs.^[12]

The Era of Postwar Reconstruction and Material Shotages

After World WarII, lots of metropolis was destroyed by air raid, and in Tokyo, so many buildings had been lost that the horizon was visible in every direction. People who lost their hosing reconstruct their lives by reusing air-raid shelters and unused clay pipes as shelves and beds.^[13]

Tetsu Katayama, who became Japan’s first Socialist Party prime minster in 1947, he emphasized saving campaign for national recovery and offered "The beautiful custom of diligence, frugality, and saving. The Katayama administration reorganize prewar living improvement movement as a new life movement. By systematizing household savings and financial management, it provided policy support for the practice of mottainai. These attempts were institutionalized in 1955 under a conservative administration, establishing a framework that made thrift a civic duty. This became the ethical foundation that endured beyond the postwar period of hardship and continued into the era or rapid economic growth.^[14]

The Rise of Consumer Culture and Shift in Values

During the period of rapid economic growth in the 1950s and 1960s, home appliances, such as washing machines, refrigerators, and rice cookers rapidly became widespread. These products were initially called the "Big Three White Goods." From around 1957, washing machines, refrigerators, and black-and-white televisions became known as the "Three Sacred Treasures," symbolizing a new standard of living. Although this trend began among non-farming households in urban areas, rural areas quickly followed suit, and by the end of the high growth period, nearly all households owned major home appliances. These products significantly reduced the burden of household chores .^[15]

However, this expansion in consumption did not necessarily signify the decline of a culture of thrift rather household reduce expense to purchase these durable goods. As income rose, a unique dual structure emerged in which both consumption and savings increased. Furthermore, the postal saving system and nationwide savings campaigns continued beyond the 1960s, with many housewives practicing the ethic of mottainai in daily life through household accounting and saving guidance. As a result, the expansion of convenience and the value of thrift did not conflict, rather they progressed in parallel within postwar Japan’s consumer society.^[16]

A Sense of Unease about Affluence and the Emergence of Environmental Awareness

From the late 1960 through the 1970, Japan gained prosperity through rapid economic growth, but faced serious environmental problems such as pollution and increased waste. It points out that a new romanticism emerged during this period, emphasizing restrict in machine use, reuse, and modest living .^[17]

The spread of durable goods has led to increase in urban waste, which is seen as a structural problem created by mass consumption society.^[18] In 1971, the Governor of Tokyo Minobe Ryokichi declared a "garbage war," making the administrative response has begun in earnest. ^[19] Furthermore, during the 1970s, criticism of excessive packaging and consumer movements for container reuse widespread. It indicates the emergence of environmental awareness as an early recycling movement.^[20]

Mottai itself is a noun appearing as such in, for example, the dictionary Gagaku-shū  [ja],^[21] which dates to 1444.^[22] Daigenkai gives buttai as an alternate reading of the word,^[21] and it appears written with the kanji 勿躰, 物體, 勿體, 物体, or 勿体.^[21]

It means (i) the shape/form of a thing or (ii) something that is, or the fact of being, impressive or imposing (モノモノシキコト; monomonoshiki koto).^[21]

The compound that is pronounced as mottai in Japanese appears in Sino-Japanese dictionaries as a Chinese word in a sense similar to (ii),^[23] but mottainashi does not, as it is an indigenous Japanese word.^[23]

The word nai in mottainai resembles a Japanese negative ("there is no mottai"), but may have originally been used as an emphatic ("tremendous mottai").^[5]

Kōjien , widely considered the most authoritative Japanese dictionary, lists three definitions for the word mottainai (classical Japanese terminal form mottainashi):^[24]

1. inexpedient or reprehensible towards a god, buddha, noble or the like
2. awe-inspiring and unmerited/undeserved, used to express thanks
3. an expression of regret at the full value of something not being put to good use. In contemporary Japanese, mottainai is most commonly used to indicate that something is being discarded needlessly, or to express regret at such a fact.

Kōhei Hasegawa  [ja], former professor of Nagano University, noted that the definition (3) in Kōjien was the one used most frequently by modern Japanese.^[24] The second sense is seen in Japanese newspapers when they refer to members of the imperial family as having been present at such-and-such an event, not necessarily implying wastefulness but rather gratitude or awe.^[24] Daigenkai  [ja], another Japanese dictionary, gives a similar ordering of these definitions.^[24]

Hasegawa traces this increase in the frequency of meaning (3) to a historical semantic shift in which the original meaning, meaning (1), became less prominent.^[24] Citing the Kyoto University Japanese literature scholar Kōshin Noma  [ja],

Hasegawa states that the word originated as slang in the Kamakura period,^[24] and that by the mid 15th century had perhaps already acquired the meanings of (2) and (3).^[5]

Japanese environmentalists have used the term to encourage people to "reduce, reuse and recycle".

In November 2002, the English-language, Japan-based magazine Look Japan ran a cover story entitled "Restyling Japan: Revival of the 'Mottainai' Spirit", documenting the motivation amongst volunteers in a "toy hospital" in Japan to "develop in children the habit of looking after their possessions", the re-emergence of repair shops specializing in repairing household appliances or children's clothes, the recycling of PET bottles and other materials, the collection of waste edible oil, and more generally the efforts to stop the trend of throwing away everything that can no longer be used, i.e. the efforts of reviving "the spirit of mottainai".^[25]

The "Mottainai Spirit" is seen as human resources and nature surrounding us.^[25] In that context, Hitoshi Chiba, the author, described mottainai as follows:^[25]

We often hear in Japan the expression 'mottainai', which loosely means 'wasteful' but in its full sense conveys a feeling of awe and appreciation for the gifts of nature or the sincere conduct of other people. There is a trait among Japanese people to try to use something for its entire effective life or continue to use it by repairing it. In this caring culture, people will endeavor to find new homes for possessions they no longer need. The 'mottainai' principle extends to the dinner table, where many consider it rude to leave even a single grain of rice in the bowl. The concern is that this traditional trait may be lost.

In a 2014 paper on an apparent increase in interest in the idea of mottainai in early 21st-century Japan, historian Eiko Maruko Siniawer summarized the views of several Japanese writers who claimed that mottainai was a specifically Buddhist concept.^[26]

She also cited a number of views of Japanese authors who believed that it was a uniquely Japanese "contribution to the world", whose views she characterized as mostly being "deeply rooted in cultural generalizations, essentialisms, and disdainful comparisons between countries".^[27]

At a session of the United Nations, Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai introduced the word mottainai as a slogan for environmental protection.^{[28] [2]}

According to Mizue Sasaki,^[29]

Dr. Maathai, brandishing a t-shirt emblazoned with the word MOTTAINAI, explained that the meaning of the term mottainai encompasses the four Rs of reduce, reuse, recycle and repair ... [and] made the case that we should all use limited resources effectively and share them fairly if we are to avert wars arising from disputes over natural resources.

At the 2009 United Nations Summit on Climate Change, she said,^[30]

Even at personal level, we can all reduce, re-use and recycle, what is embraced as Mottainai in Japan, a concept that also calls us to express gratitude, to respect and to avoid wastage.

• Affluenza
• Anti-consumerism
• Bal tashchit
• Conspicuous consumption
• Freeganism
• Frugality
• Kintsugi – Japanese pottery repair method with gold lacquer
• Mottainai Grandma
• "Mottai Night Land", a Kyary Pamyu Pamyu song
• Muda , mura and muri , three types of waste in lean manufacturing
• Planned obsolescence
• Simple living

• Hasegawa, Kōhei (1983). "Mottai-nashi Kō". Academic Bulletin of Nagano University. 4 (3–4): 25–30.
• Siniawer, Eiko Maruko (2014). "'Affluence of the Heart': Wastefulness and the Search for Meaning in Millennial Japan". The Journal of Asian Studies. 73 (1). Cambridge University Press, Association for Asian Studies: 165–186. doi:10.1017/S0021911813001745 . JSTOR 43553399.
• Siniawer, Eiko Maruko (2018). "We Are All Waste Conscious Now". Waste: Consuming Postwar Japan. Cornell University Press. pp. 241–265 (and endnotes pp. 343–347). ISBN 9781501725852.
• Siniawer, Eiko Maruko (2014). ""Affluence of the Heart": Wastefulness and the Search for Meaning in Millenial Japan". The Journal of Asian Studies. 73 (1): 165 – via perusall.

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• Social philosophy
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• Japanese words and phrases
• Resource economics
• Waste management concepts
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• Environmentalism in Japan

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