Mottainai is a Japanese original word invented in Japan. This word meaning, “Let’s use the given thing to its maximum”. There’s no country that has this Japanese culture “Mottainai”. This word was made known to the world by Ms. Wangari Maathai who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. Ms. Wangari Maathai is the Vice Minister for the Environment in Kenya. In 2005 when she came to Japan, she felt great impact when she was taught this word. She said on a television program in Japan, “Including all the meanings of the consumption reduction, re-use, the reproduction use, and the repair don’t exist except Mottainai.” She spoke about importance of thinking “Mottainai” then, too.
As Japanese, we should think again about this word, “Mottainai”.