We have become so used to environmental portents that whenever we hear good news we blink in disbelief, so blink away: It appears that the various concerted efforts to get people in Japan to save water has paid off.

In Kanagawa Prefecture, for example, per capita water consumption dropped from 21.55 cubic meters a month in 1998 to 19.98 cubic meters a month in 2004. In Tokyo, consumption during the same period went down by 6 percent, and in Chiba Prefecture by 9 percent. The Japan Waterworks Association, which represents 1,500 water departments, says that between 1995 and 2003 average water use per day per person decreased from 391 liters to 363 liters. According to an Asahi Shimbun feature published last March, this decrease was brought about mainly through technology. A single flush of a toilet in the 1970s consumed 20 liters of water, while the same action today only uses 10. New drum-type washing machines use half the water older machines use, and as living spaces get larger more people are buying dishwashers, which on average need about one-tenth the amount of water that hand-washing requires.

The decrease can also be attributed to a change in public consciousness. Consumers have internalized the call for conservation in such a way that they no longer think they need as much water as they used to; meaning, they don't consciously conserve but simply use less as a matter of course. This is certainly good news, especially for Japan, which is one of the world's most notorious water hogs. Another Asahi article reported that Japan is the world's No. 1 importer of "virtual water" (kasosui), a term that describes the amount of H2O used to produce certain items. For example, it takes about 20 tons of water to produce one kilogram of beef in terms of growing feed, maintaining livestock etc. So while Japan itself doesn't directly consume this water, the countries it imports food from do, and some of these countries are undergoing water crises of their own, not to mention acute desertification.