According to The Hollywood Reporter, Hayao Miyazaki said that he was embarrassed by Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso’s public love of manga.  Since being placed in office, Aso and other politicians have been trying to boost the county’s image with the manga and animation industries.

“It’s an embarrassment,” Miyazaki said in a rare news conference. “That’s something that should be done in private.”

“This environment surrounding our children is full of virtual reality: television, video games, e-mail, mobile phones and manga,” Miyazaki said.

“I think this saps children of their strength,” he said, adding that he realized his viewpoint was paradoxical, given his choice of vocation.

Even though this is a strange stance to take for an animator, one only has to look at Miyazaki’s life and work to see that he is a great nature lover and advocate of conservation.  His movies such as ‘Princess Mononoke,’ ‘My Neighbor Totoro’, and  ’Pom Poko’ shows Miyzaki’s ideals of living in harmony with nature. Even the recent Pixar Art Show “The Totoro Forest Project” was created to benefit the  Totoro Forest in Japan, one of Miyazaki’s conservational causes.

“Instead of thinking about how to stimulate demand by creating bridges or roads, we should have the proper environment in place for future generations,” he said.