Back in 1989, a provocative book titled ‘No’ to Ieru Nihon was co-published by Shintaro Ishihara, then the minister of transport in Japan and a rabid right-wing nationalist. The book’s English-language translation, The Japan That Can Say No: Why Japan Will Be First Among Equals caused a big stir for its bluntness at the height of U.S.-Japan trade and economic friction.

Ishihara asserted in the book that it was time for Japan to stop being America’s “yes-man” (or “mistress,” as he sometimes put it) in economic, political and military matters, and for Japan to chart its own course in the coming 21st century. Despite his rhetoric, which often bordered on the extreme, Ishihara had some valid points. He was both adored and despised at home by the Japanese public.

Ishihara was one among many Japanese leaders across the political spectrum — right, center, left — who talked a good talk about standing up to the United States and saying “no” when it was necessary. Ten years later in 1999, Ishihara had the chance to do just that: He was elected governor of Tokyo, a powerful position that he held until 2012. But as governor, he somehow forgot how to say the word “no” and distinguished himself by essentially becoming America’s reliable man in Tokyo — a political figure who seemed to stand sharply at attention whenever Washington D.C. snapped its imperialist fingers.

For some reason, that whole episode with Ishihara and The Japan That Can Say No came to my mind when I heard some encouraging news recently reported out of Tokyo. The government of Japan announced that it would cancel a planned order of wheat from the United States, after it was found that the strain of wheat, made by the U.S. corporation Monsanto, was found to contain genetically modified organisms (GMOs). “We will refrain from buying western white and feed wheat effective today,” a Japanese farm ministry official said. Japan and other Asian nations are concerned about the health effects of U.S.-made GMO crops and have worked hard to keep them out of their domestic markets.

Japan’s concerns are well founded. A report published just a few months ago in March determined links between genetically modified foods and a high risk of developing organ failure in animals, particularly in the kidneys and liver.

And this newfound “Japan that can say ‘no’ to Monsanto” finds much support around the world. It was reported that on Saturday, May 25, possibly up to two million people throughout the U.S. and in more than 50 other nations demonstrated against Monsanto, well known as a maker of toxic herbicides used on farms across the United States and in various countries around the world.

Organizers of the worldwide “March Against Monsanto” say it is only the beginning of public campaigns that will be waged against Monsanto, a corporation that has long had the protection of the U.S. and other governments despite a record of environmental pollution and a host of other corporate crimes.

I don’t use the word “evil” lightly when talking about business matters. But in the case of Monsanto, I think the description is well deserved.

Here is a company (based in St. Louis, Missouri in the U.S.) that has dumped toxic chemicals in residential areas of the U.S. and in foreign countries. It produced the Agent Orange toxic chemicals sprayed by the U.S. military in the 1960s and 1970s over rural areas of Vietnam (where a high rate of malformed babies are still being born today). It resembles more a mafia organization than a socially responsible company in the ways that it tries to monopolize markets, smear and silence critics, and put family farmers in North America and other regions of the world out of business for good.

There has been no shortage of scandals and lawsuits involving the Monsanto corporation throughout its 112-year history. If there is such a thing as a Corporate Hell where old companies go when they die, then surely Monsanto is someday going to spend an eternity burning there. This is one evil corporation.

Many of us may not be aware that Monsanto also happens to be the world’s top producer of vegetable seeds for agricultural crops, with sales at about $800 million annually. The company boasts of selling “4,000 distinct seed varieties representing more than 20 species” of vegetables. About 50 percent of their seed business is producing genetically modified seeds for farms.

Globally, Monsanto controls about one-fourth of the world’s total seed supply. Author and environmental activist Dr. Vandana Shiva of India says that “When a corporation controls seed, it controls life,” and she is absolutely correct. Monsanto is a corporate entity that seems intent on owning Life itself and, wherever it can, inflicting death at the same time.

That’s why I was excited to see the recent mass movement worldwide against Monsanto. People are waking up and understanding that such corporations are literally waging a war against Mother Earth and against ourselves, the human race, and must be stopped. Governments almost seem powerless to do anything about Monsanto and other multinationals like it, so in the end, it will have to be People Power that stands up like a mighty wave against this corporation that so falsely claims to be “improving agriculture, improving lives.”

But can the heat of the March Against Monsanto be kept on over a long period of time? Do we have what it takes to really stop this monster in its tracks? Or will we be like the Shintaro Ishiharas of Japan and the world — people who talk a good talk about “saying no” to a big bully only to bow down before the power of money and politics, and become yes-men and yes-women instead? Only time will tell.

In the meantime, a good place for each one of us to start is to investigate for ourselves what the real issues are concerning Monsanto, and keep an eye out for how we might be able to participate in and contribute to the public pressure now being put on Monsanto. Saying NO and meaning it — that’s the real task before us in confronting this thing called Monsanto and, in doing so, reclaiming our common future on this planet that we all call home.