What do the following recent news items have in common? 1) An automobile driven by a 23-year-old man in Yokohama accidentally runs into a line of high-school students returning home from school, killing two and injuring seven. 2) The United States Senate votes to open the Alaskan wildlife refuge to oil drilling. 3) The government of Fukushima Prefecture passes a law that will place limits on the construction of large retail stores.

Give up? What these stories have in common is that they all illustrate the downside of our automobile culture. The first one about the accident is an obvious illustration. The second is less obvious but easy to understand. For years the oil industry has wanted to drill in Alaska, but environmentalists have fought such development because of the area's fragile ecosystem. The U.S. Senate, under pressure from voters who are worried about rising gasoline prices, finally caved in.

The third story requires more explanation. Ever since the Japanese government passed the so-called "big-store law" in the 1990s to placate the United States, which wanted to export American superstores like Toys R Us to Japan, large retailers have built stores in outlying areas, drawing people away from regional shopping arcades. These large stores can only be accessed by car, which means those without cars can't go there. Unfortunately, the smaller neighborhood retail businesses that these people patronize are being forced to close because they can't compete with the super-stores.