Amazed by Japan and the Japanese during our month long visit in the fall of 2006, I came away thinking that these considerate, hard-working, and ingenious people were "eating our lunch" when it comes to environmental technology.

While U.S. automakers were complaining of red ink to an administration vowing to protect the economy by rejecting mandatory greenhouse gas reduction, Japan was busy producing and selling hybrid autos and solar cells to take advantage of a burgeoning green market around the world.

Toyota is poised to take the place of General Motors as the top world automaker. Toyota's bet on fuel-efficient hybrid cars is paying off as higher oil prices have cut SUV sales and put U.S. automakers in serious financial difficulties with the credit ratings of Ford and GM reduced to junk status . Toyota and Honda hybrid sales in the meanwhile vaulted to 283,000 in 2005 and are projected to be well over one million by 2010 headlined by flex-fuel and plug-in hybrids.

Japan leads the world in solar cell technology with 46% of the production in 2005. World production of solar cells has been doubling every two years as demand soars. In 2007 Honda will begin producing low cost thin film solar cells using half the energy in production compared to silicon solar cells. Thin film solar cell technology promises to make solar power competitive with other power sources affording widespread home and commercial distributed networks.

Riding the high speed Shinkansen trains on the largely automated national network in Japan had me yearning for "bullet trains" in the United States. It was thrilling to watch the fastest Nozomi trains (168 mph) noiselessly pull up to stations, gates and train doors opening automatically to disgorge passengers and take on new passengers, then zooming off in a minute's time exactly on schedule. Recorded announcements in trains and buses herald the next stations and connections in Japanese and English. It was a delight to ride on an integrated national transportation network that so efficiently moves workers, school children, and vacationers to and from airports, cities, and towns.

But is this rich, industrial nation sustainable? Japan ranks 30th, versus 45th for the U.S., in the 2005 Yale University Sustainability Index. Japan went from sustainability in the isolation of the Edo period (1603-1867) to increasing unsustainability as the country began to industrialize and import fuel and raw materials.

Japanese timber imports from forests of high conservation value in Indonesia, particularly central Sumatra, and the Russian Far East are very damaging to those ecosystems with their assemblages of rare plants and animals according to the World Wildlife Fund.

Japanese eat an average of 156 pounds of fish per year per person, one of the highest consumption rates in the world. This was made clear by our visit to the famed Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo where seafood is processed and packaged from arriving ships. Given that 80% of ocean fisheries have collapsed or been depleted, Japan signed the UN Fish Protection Treaty in 2006. Also Japan agreed to cut its catch of southern blue fin tuna, prized for sashimi and sushi, although scientists believe that much more must be done to protect the stocks. Japan continues to hunt whales as objects of "scientific research" despite international protests, planning to harvest 850 Minki and other whale species in the 2006-2007 season even though the Japanese public is indifferent to whale meat even at subsidized prices.

As a world leader in environmental technology Japan is conducting a robust effort at home to curb air and water pollution, although in the last year produced 14% more carbon dioxide than stipulated by its Kyoto target. Now producing 80% of its power from fossil fuels, Japan plans to dramatically increase renewable energy production.