Japan collects some 30,000 to 50,000 tons of marine plastics from its coastlines each year, while an estimated 150 million tons of polyethylene, polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride, poly-this, and poly-that  swirl almost infinitely around this big blue planet at the moment. It’s difficult to fathom how, as figures suggest, Japan’s waters could carry 27 times the global average concentration of microplastics, but before anyone goes wavering denunciatory digits at any one nation-state, consider that Japan is an island surrounded by no shortage of neighbors with similar blood on their hands. At the epicenter of Japan’s marine-plastic pandemic is Cape Hado in Saga Prefecture, on Kyushu Island, not 200 miles from South Korea’s southern city of Busan, where the East China Sea, the Yellow Sea, and the Sea of Japan all converge. And to that end, for goodness’ sake, at least Japan is collectively doing something about it.…