All you’ve really demonstrated is that China and Japan are well represented in one very specific pollution phenomenon but not why that is. There are a number of reasons that those two could be overemphasized that aren’t “these guys are doing all the plastic pollution”. For example, ocean currents probably play a big role, in combination with the location of the patch itself.
You cannot extrapolate this out into a representative sample of the sources of all plastic pollution, it’s statistical gymnastics. Hell, the article you linked even offers an alternative explanation for why Japan is so high:
One of the reasons that Japan is thought to contribute so highly was that the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami washed large amounts of debris offshore.
It’s at the end of the article though so I can see how you might have overlooked it in your rush to place all the blame on foreigners.
All you’ve really demonstrated is that China and Japan are well represented in one very specific pollution phenomenon but not why that is. There are a number of reasons that those two could be overemphasized that aren’t “these guys are doing all the plastic pollution”. For example, ocean currents probably play a big role, in combination with the location of the patch itself.
You cannot extrapolate this out into a representative sample of the sources of all plastic pollution, it’s statistical gymnastics. Hell, the article you linked even offers an alternative explanation for why Japan is so high:
It’s at the end of the article though so I can see how you might have overlooked it in your rush to place all the blame on foreigners.