Every night, I make it a habit to busy myself with cataloging my insect collection, with a cup of sake in my hand. I am not actually pressed with this work because, unlike in the case of article contribution, there is no deadline. But I feel somehow pressed. I have such an enormous amount of specimens that I may not be able to set in order during the rest of my life.

  Insect specimens will be of no use as research materials unless they are pinned, one by one, with a label attached to each. Although I do not care if these specimens may or may not serve any particular purpose, I cannot tolerate the idea of leaving all the insects I have collected to go rotten. Thanks to popularization of the strangely thwarted ideology of "conservation of nature," we cannot collect insects freely in forests because the forests where you can find insects are designated as reserves in every country. On the other hand, well-paved asphalt roads are built in those forests, causing the number of insects to decrease rapidly.

  Perhaps, the important thing is not protecting insects but pretending to protect them. Construction of dams, cutting of forests and aerial sprinkling of insecticides certainly decrease the number of insects. However, no species of insects would decrease by catching them with nets only. However I complain, there is no way to contend against public opinion. The trend to prohibit bug hunting is spreading. We cannot identify the accurate name of a certain insect unless we collect it, make a specimen and examine it with a microscope. There are a number of insects having no names among the specimens I have collected myself. They may be what we call new species.

    Most of the insects which I store in a refrigerator were collected in the primeval forests in Southeast Asia, and some might have gone extinct without being given a name. I am even tempted to suspect that such random prohibition of insect collecting is aimed at concealing such facts. Even when prohibition is in place, no one takes the responsibility of surveying the insects. The prohibition only makes a "black box" and we may be unable to determine what kinds of insects actually exist.

  In Japan as well, as compared to other places, very little is known about the entomofauna in such places as Kamikochi in Nagano Prefecture and Daisetsuzan in Hokkaido, where insect collecting has long been prohibited. It is clear that insects near extinction cannot be protected unless the state of the increase or depletion of the entomofauna is monitored. So I guess that the authorities have no willingness to protect the insects. Even if precious insect species go extinct because of negligence of the government, they could blame the extinction on poaching by insect maniacs. The not so intelligent mass media, such as the Asahi Shimbun, seem to take a special interest in such topics as the extinction of valuable insects due to poaching by inconsiderate buffs. They are staging campaigns from time to time, giving a helping hand to the irresponsible government. Because diverse complex factors are involved in the state of a certain species, it is not so simple as to say that if you collect insects, they will decrease.

  But demonizing insect lovers is a simple and easily understandable way to convince the public, as was the propaganda by the Nazis. This is the same as the case where ordinary people readily believe that whales are on the brink of extinction because the Japanese catch them.

    As a matter of fact, the predominant part of entomofaunas in Japan has been clarified by amateur researchers. Amateurs have examined the entomofauna of a certain region at their own cost over a span of some decades and made lists of insect species. Using their study results, the government prohibits the catch of those species on the ground that they are rare. Thus the government shuts out amateur researchers from their research domain. I think this is an unreasonable approach.

  Certainly there exist insects threatened with extinction. Those insects were driven to the risk of extinction because their ecological niche was deprived because of drastic changes in the environment. Therefore, extinction is inevitable if no conservation measures are taken while only prohibiting bug collection. There will remain only a few specimens after extinction. Many of the insects for which extinction is feared in Japan now are butterflies in the highlands, mountains and forests closely linked to human living environments. The only way to save them from extinction is to make positive efforts to increase the environment friendly to those butterflies. I am not necessarily opposed to the prohibition of bug hunting as an emergency measure. But I believe the appropriate protection is to lift the prohibition when the crisis is overcome after artificially increasing the butterfly population and realizing a suitable environment for them to live.

  Catch prohibition is only one means of protection and not the purpose. Japanese serows are designated as a precious animal. But they were designated so because they were rare. The designation should be removed if they start causing a nuisance after growing to an excessive number. Cheirotonus jambar, the largest beetle in Japan, is designated as a precious insect and it is actually facing the risk of imminent extinction. The breeding technique for Cheirotonus by Japanese amateur entomologists is at the world's highest level. If several couples of this species are caught and bred artificially, they will certainly increase by the order of hundreds in several years. Nevertheless, I hear that the Cultural Agency, the office governing precious natural species, is taking the policy of not allowing the catch of even a single insect of this species. If the agency sticks to this policy, it will be inevitable that the case of the Japanese crested ibis will be repeated.

  The coexistence with wildlife must not mean the total prohibition of catch. If this step is taken, man would not be able to eat any fish nor exterminate harmful insects. I believe that true coexistence can be ensured through proper utilization and management within the scope of sustainability. Whether they be insects or whales, man may not know how to deal with them if scientific research is not carried out. For this very reason, the fundamentalists want to make the prohibition of catch or collection as their golden rule. They never lose in argument if there are no data.