Can Public Environmental Awareness be Raised Through Cafes Integrating Nature?

★この論文は、大学の英語のカリキュラムの修了時に、あやなかが本名で提出したものです。(2017年2月)

1. Introduction

Languages human beings acquired long time ago have changed the style many times until today. A short time ago, a certain word was generated by younger generations. This word is “instagramable”, or in Japanese “instagenic”and its mean is a photo or a picture that is worth posting on Instagram (Urban Dictionary, 2016). Instagram is a Social Networking Service (SNS) and it enable users to interact with each other by uploading their favorite pictures. The application is loved by 35.1% of girl teenagers of SNS users (Testee, 2016) and more and more people have started to set up his or her accounts. If a person can show his or her followers to “instagramable” pictures, the person will be praised or recognized as stylish. That is why many people try to look for nice instagrammable spots. Then, they arrive at some photogenic cafes. Why I can affirm is because Instagram itself shows how many people write posts about cafes. At 2:23, November 26th, 2017, about 471,400 posts tied to cafes can be checked. In addition, some cafes are built in much of green. That type of cafe is in fashion. Recently some cafes integrating nature have become familiar to people regardless of age and gender but it is suspected these cafes contribute to people’s awareness of the environment so to clarify whether that is true or not, following three things will be discussed: the definition of “the cafes”, the reason why people want to go to such cafe, and what environmental issues can be raised public interest should be recognised. This paper describes what is the cafes integrating nature, next considers the reason why people are attracted by the cafes, and finally discusses whether people awareness of environment can be raised or not.

2. Cafes integrating nature

There are many types of cafes all over the world but the cafes this paper try to write about are difficult describe and few literatures are found. So it is the first document that shows what the cafes integrating nature are like. And also this section indicates the history of cafes in Japan, and future.

2.1 definition

It can be said that the cafes integrating nature are outgrowths in the field of Environmental arts. According to Wikipedia (2017), “Environmental art is a range of artistic practices encompassing both historical approaches to nature in art and more recent ecological and politically motivated types of works”. The definition of “cafe integrating nature” is where:
・people can drink coffee or other drink or eat light meals
・people can relax
・is associated with nature
And so on.

2.2 history

This paragraph sums up Shiraishi. N. (2015). ”Social History of tearoom in Tokyo--- changing from dispatched place to personal space”.
The first cafe in Japan was built in Ueno, Tokyo, 1888. The owner of that shop imitated that of Europe as he equipped billiard tables and sophisticated rest rooms. The shop was absolutely most advanced in that era but people could not catch up with the latest fashion. In short, the store was ahead of its time. Ultimately, owner decided to close his shop around four years. After a few decades, some characterized cafes appeared. One of them built in 1911 was open to members only, so consequently those who used to go there were rich, in fact, many celebrities such as Ohgai Mori, Kafu Nagai, and Ichiro Hatoyama went to the shop as regular customers. However, during WWⅡ, the Japanese government had banned the import coffee beans. Due to changing common lifestyle contrast to before war, different types of coffee shops were activated after the war period was over. Simply put, the place people can sing songs or dance like jazz music cafes gained power, but the demand of such cafes decreased by inviting Karaoke, and developing the food‐service industry. In 1980s, taking advantage of Doutor Coffee came to Japan, chain coffee shops widely spread all of Japan. Since 2000s, the number of cafe which reflects the owner’s strong preferences has increased. 

3. Reasons Why People go to the Cafes

Probably there are reasons why people prefer to going to cafes. This section investigates the reasons by using a survey conducted by the writer of this paper and quotation from PhD. 

3.1 survey the author carried out

3.1.1 survey form

The author of this paper made a questionnaire, “Survey on Attitude toward cafes”, which included six multiple choice questions. The form is in [Appendix A].
The writer think these things to set up questions:
Q1 and Q2 can remove statistic bias.
Q3 and Q6 elucidate how often a person goes to cafes and the level of awareness of the environment.
Q4 explains why people go to cafes.
Q5 and Q6 confirm the connection between the cafes the person prefers and environmental issues the person is interested in.

3.1.2 Survey Results

This questionnaire received 43 responses. Many of respondents are the author’s friends but their majors are not similar. The time period for tallying the results of this questionnaire survey was from November 21st to December 4th, 2017.
Answer 1: 9 people answered his/ her major was environments and all of the others choose others. No one marked architectures or arts. The conductor considered the ratio adequate to remove bias, so this section was not used.
A2: 6 people answered she had career of cafe. Nevertheless, this number was less so the writer was not able to compare the results responded by cafe workers and non-cafe workers.
A3 and A6: An interesting consequence is that the more frequently people go to cafes, the more awareness people have. [See Graph 1]
A4: 41% of people go to cafes to drink their favorite beverages. 15% of respondents answered others which is to talk with friends, just for fun, and so on.
A5 and A6 is used later.
[Graph 1] frequency and awareness

The vertical axis the combined scores of how people think each environmental issues as a big problem.
・We have to cope with it immediately/ I am so interested in it = 4 points
・We have to cope with it someday/ I am interested in it = 3 points
・We can prolong the time to resolve it = 2 points
・We do not have to deal with it/ I am not interested at all = 1 point
Then the average scores in each frequency were calculated.

[Graph 2] The reasons why people go to cafes

3.2 in terms of Medical

According to Seiji Shibata, Department of Human Psychology, Sagami Women’s University, looking at nature is useful to release stress. However, for people who live in urban area, it is too difficult to find such places on a daily basis. In such situations, to go to cafes can be an alternative way. Thus, it can be said cafes have effects on removing person’s stress.

4. the Environmental Issues 

Many people like going to cafe integrating nature but it is unclear whether these types of cafes play a role to raise human’s awareness of the environment. With the questionnaire, the question can be solved.

4.1 kinds of environmental issues

There are a lot of environmental issues to resolve all over the world. Refer to Wikipedia page, over 50 issues are listed. In former questionnaire of Q6, five environmental issues: deforestation, sea level rise, global warming, sea contamination, and abnormal weather were included. This range of issues was chosen in order to consist of familiar and unfamiliar ones. Also, global warming and abnormal weather were considered former ones, and the others latter ones. 

4.2 Survey Results 

Whether cafe integrating nature can raise public environmental issues, the analysis of Q5 and Q6. Q6 asks how strongly people feel about each environmental problem. In Q5 shows picture and requested respondents to choose the person’s favorite cafe. At a first glance, this question is very simple but it contains hidden message. Choice 2 and 6 are normal cafe, Choice 1 is expected to be selected by the point of keep forest, Choice 3 and 5 is expected to be selected by the point of keep beautiful sea. In other words, if a person selected “We have to cope with it immediately/ I am so interested in it” of deforestation in Q6 choose only Choice 1 in Q5, it can be said that the interrelation between cafes and environmental issues is strong.
Answer 5: About deforestation, although all of respondents answered “We have to cope with it immediately/ I am so interested in it “ or “We have to cope with it someday/ I am interested in it”, the number of people who select choice 1 in Q5 is 17. [See graph 3 and 4] Thus, it is uncertain whether cafes can affect the awareness of deforestation.
About sea level rise, all of respondents answered “We have to cope with it immediately/ I am so interested in it “ or “We have to cope with it someday/ I am interested in it”. [See graph 5] And the number of people who select choice 3 or 5 in Q5 is 39. [See graph 6] Thus, many people are interested in sea level rise.
Next, about sea pollution, as the same as sea level rise, all of respondents answered “We have to cope with it immediately/ I am so interested in it “ or “We have to cope with it someday/ I am interested in it” but that ratio is a little bit different. [See graph 7] However, we can say many people are interested in sea contamination. [See graph 8]
Other choices in Q5, global warming and abnormal weather, do not correspond any photo of Q5. So the author can analyse only how people think these two big problems.
About global warming, over 80% of people choose “We have to cope with it immediately/ I am so interested in it “ or “We have to cope with it someday/ I am interested in it” but there are few people who are not interested in it. [See graph 9] About abnormal weather, as the same as global warming in terms of over 80% people choosing “We have to cope with it immediately/ I am so interested in it “ or “We have to cope with it someday/ I am interested in it” but there are few people who are not interested in it” but that ratio is considerably different. [Graph 10]
As a result, it is difficult to say that cafes influence on public awareness of environmental problems. That is because interest on global warming is high regardless of cafes, moreover, cafes with woods cannot make people feel solving to deforestation.
[Graph 3&4] uncertain whether cafes can affect the awareness of deforestation.

[Graph 5] All of respondents are interested in sea level rise

[Graph 6] Many people are interested in sea level rise.

[Graph 7] All of respondents are interested in sea contamination.

[Graph 8] Many people are interested in sea contamination.

[Graph 9] Over 80% of people are interested in global warming

[Graph 10]Over 80% of people are interested in abnormal weather

4.2 What Environmental Issues can be thought by people

Above outcomes show all of environmental issues --deforestation, sea level rise, sea contamination, global warming, and abnormal weather-- are paid attention by people. This section investigate other environmental issues which can attract public interest.
Refer to a survey which conducted by Macromill, 80% of people care about protecting environment. In addition, according to survey by Dentsu Marketing Insight Inc., people are interested in energy-saving, global warming, recycling and so on. [See graph 11] Therefore, citizens know many environmental issues and interested in them.
[Graph 11]Citizens know many environmental issues and interested in them.

5. Conclusion

These days cafes with much of nature have gained a lot of popularity especially by young women. This essay tried to assert that what is cafes integrating nature, the reason people go there, and what environmental issues gather people attention. After all, it could show definition of the cafes, and investigate why people go to cafes. Nevertheless, it could not conclude whether cafes integrating nature can raise public environmental awareness. If the chance to examine this topic come, more precious information as environmental issues can solve may be found.

References

Urban Dictionary.(2016). instagramable. Retrieved November 20th, 2017, from
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=instagrammable

Tes Tee Lab. (2016). The newest results of SNS uses! 1 of 3 people uses Instagram! Retrieved November 20th, 2017, from
https://lab.testee.co/teen-sns

Wikipedia (2017). Environmental art
Retrieved December 4th, 2017, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_art#cite_note-Profusion-1

Shiraishi. N. (2015).Tokyo・Kissaten no Shakaishi - Social History of tearoom in Tokyo--- changing from dispatched place to personal space.
Retrieved December 11th, 2017

Shibata Seiji (2012) Restoraviness in Every Life: The Home as a Restorative Environment
Retrieved January 15th, 2018
https://ci.nii.ac.jp/els/contents110009613006.pdf?id=ART0010078080

Wikipedia (2018). List of environmental issues
Retrieved January 19th, 2018
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_environmental_issues

Macromill (2009). Survey on Attitude toward Environmental Awareness
Retrieved January 22th, 2018
https://www.macromill.com/r_data/20090702eco/20090702eco.pdf

Dentsu Marketing Insight (2012). Survey result on environmental issues and concern about ecology
Retrieved January 29th, 2018
https://www.dm-insight.jp/release/20121112.pdf

[Appendix]