Simplicity is Virtue

EKIKAN NO ZEN (易簡の善) will be the Japanese word for saying "the virtue of simplicity". It is originaly a concept from China based on a book of fortune telling, but there was a Japanese man in the public sector who redifined this concept based on his local position in Japan during the 17th century. Hanzan Kumazawa was in charge of public infrastructure during the Edo Period. He had his own philosophy about public welfare, that "forests and rivers are the fundamentals of a country, but it is not abundant in Japan. Hence, Japan should not apply the Chinese way nor Indian way of building temples or infrastructure. We should make it simple and use less wood".
It was a concept that came from careful comparison between traditional philosophy and natural resource between the bigger countries and small island. He was a very local person with educational background of Confucism (which was the major school in the Edo period). Instead of "applying" a global way of thinking to the local circumstance, he built a new philosophy truly stemming from the local landscape and experience.
It can be applied to modern Japanese infrastructure (instead of developing huge roads and plants, make it simple and small) and also as an example to other small countries with less natural resource. It tells us the importance of keeping local philosophy instead of just applying the so-called "global standards".