erink wrote:
Japanese burn leaves! And brush, and garbage. Every time we came near farm fields on our trip there was a little fire going in one corner.

Also the stubble left in the rice fields after harvest. When I was on a bus trip outside of Kyoto, we saw lots of rice fields mid-burn. Actually, it's not a bad practice if you don't have air pollution issues as the burning gets rid of pests and breaks down the plant material to release the minerals back into the soil.