[zspade]

Could this be the kind of external force required to help reduce unnecessary paper waste (junkmail, statements, etc.)?

China is the largest paper consumer in the world (100mm metric tons), followed not far behind by the US(70mm metric tons). Japan is 3rd at 25mm.. That seems to suggest we have a lot of room for reduction.

[onlyrealcuzzo]

Does it? The US population is ~2.5x Japan's. 25x2.5 = 62.5

Japan isn't really a society I see as absurdly wasteful. So we're using maybe 10% more paper per capita? Less paper per GDP.

[clydethefrog]

Have you ever bought any snack from Japanese origin? They are usually in three layers of plastic packaging.

They also seem to absolutely love everything stationery.