As evidenced by the popularity of quick service, today's consumers demand instant satisfaction everyday, everywhere. Bucking this trend, however, is a club advocating a slower pace of life like that of sloths.

The Sloth Club (Namakemono Club) was established two years ago by a group of about 20 students and workers. Now widely known at home and abroad thanks to the Internet, it boasts some 400 members worldwide.

The club's motto is: "Save energy, maintain peace and encourage recycling." In recent years, sloths have seen mining and other developmental projects erode their tropical rain forest habitats in Ecuador and other nations in South and Central America. Increasingly, sloths have been driven from their peaceful homes and even hunted, with their meat ending up at local markets. The club was started to protect these languid two- or three-toed forest dwellers, who hang on the brink of extinction. But what really sets the club apart is that its members aim to emulate the lifestyle of the sloth.

What is so special about sloths?

The club focuses on the three-toed variety, known for its gentle temperament. They spend much of the day hanging asleep from the branches of trees. According to one study, the creatures sleep about 20 hours a day -- longer than any other mammal. Not surprisingly, this chronic inaction means the mellow leafeating sloth consumes little energy. They have the remarkable environmentally friendly habit of placing fallen leaves on top of their excrement at the foot of their trees to create a rich mixture that helps nourish the trees. Sloths dislike conflict, and each group peacefully coexists with others by living separately in sparsely scattered forest locales. Even when young sloths become independent, they are encouraged by their parents to use part of the literal family tree.

The sloth lifestyle contrasts sharply with that of humans, which is largely characterized by a cycle of mass production, consumption and waste.

"It's near impossible for us to assume the sloth lifestyle all at once," Naoko Baba, secretary general of the Sloth Club, adding in the true sloth spirit, "It's OK for us to do what we can, bit by bit." Members, for example, carry a flask when they go out, instead of buying canned drinks, to avoid creating waste, Baba said.

The Sloth Club's Cafe Slow, which opened last spring as club headquarters in the western Tokyo suburb of Huchu, features "cafe hours in the dark" every Monday. Soft candle glow replaces the glare of electric lights and the music is turned off. The cafe's management encourages patrons to grind, roast and brew their own coffee.

"The key to a slothlike way of life may be how we manage a slow flow of time and enjoy ourselves at a slow pace," Baba noted.

Tatsuo Motokawa, professor of biology at Tokyo Institute of Technology, is a great fan of the sloth lifestyle, claiming it offers Japanese people many suggestions about how to live. Today's tempo, says Motokawa, compared to the neolithic Jomon period (ca 10,000 B.C.-ca 300 B.C.), is an incredible 40 times faster. His studies indicate metabolic rates increased about 30-fold with the evolution from cold-blooded to warm-blooded creatures, meaning the pace of life is about 30 times quicker. Japan's rate of increase, however, has been even faster, he said.

The more energy we use, the faster time flies, according to Motokawa. For example, electric lights create an environment in which the distinction between night and day disappears, and 24-hour convenience stores and factories deprive humans of the nocturnal darkness naturally associated with sleeping or resting, he explained. Improved transport and communications enabling people and data to move fast accelerated the pace and rhythm of life, especially during the economic boom of the 1960s.

"When the rhythm of life speeds up all at once, it is only natural for us to become stressed and prone to suffer mentally and physically," he said, advising that we occasionally visit zoos to observe sloths, "and ponder the wisdom of leisurely living."

Incidentally, the term "Slow Food," coined by a club of the same name in a small north Italian town in 1989, was a cynical dig at American culture. Its birth was prompted by the opening of Rome's first McDonald's fast food restaurant, which was welcomed by some and derided by others in that nation famed for its easygoing lifestyle and traditional importance placed on enjoying fine, healthy food in a convivial family atmosphere. The Slow Food adherents adopted a snail logo and their battle cries are: "Eat slowly and pleasantly" and "Avoid standardization and prepare your own food with traditional, high-quality ingredients." Members now number about 75,000 globally, with interest growing' even in Japan.

Underlying the Slow Food movement seems to be a desire to change the current way of life by reviewing today's eating habits, with a view to curbing the tendency to giving the highest importance to efficiency.

For more than a half century, emphasis in Japan has been on speed, with lifestyles becoming busier and more hectic. Recently, however, some Japanese have began to value the quality of life over speed, indicating, perhaps, a desire to emulate the wonderful lifestyle enjoyed by those slow, sleepy, shy sloths.