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October 1, 1999
Environmental Values Project:Tell us something about the
research you are doing on behalf of the Carnegie Council's Environmental Values
Project. Which case studies did you choose, and how do they illustrate the
impact of values on environmental policymaking? Also, how does your research fit
into existing research on Japan's environmental problems?
Kada: From early on, when bureaucrats took action on the
so-called "four severe pollution issues"—which refers to cases of chemical
substance pollution in Minamata, Niigata, Yokkaichi, and Itai Itai
Disease—environmental policy-making in Japan has been reactive. The emphasis is
on ridding the areas of pollutants and on treating victims—not on the need to
address the social and cultural conditions that led to the pollution in the
first place.
In Japan, as elsewhere, policy-makers tend to base their decisions on
material and economic—not socio-cultural—factors. They are not in the habit of
treating the environment as a broad concept encompassing issues of community
formation. Thus far, Japan has supported very little research in the
environmental values field.
In this project, the Japan team has tried to shed light on values in Japanese
society as they relate to nature, life, pollution, and economic development.
We've done this by conducting field interviews with people interested in or
affected by pollution in Minamata, Niigata, Nagara River, and Lake Biwa. The
first two of these cases represent the "four severe pollution issues," as
mentioned above. The latter two concern issues of resource use. All four cases
were deliberately selected according to the methodology for the environmental values project, which is
concerned with exploring pollution and resource use.
Our research aims to influence Japanese policy makers' thinking on
environmental policy by pointing to the underlying factors—cultural backgrounds,
types of community organization, and individual vs. collective attitudes toward
the environment—that shape our policy choices.
In addition to promoting a socio-cultural perspective on environmental
policy-making, a desired outcome of our research is to empower Japanese people
to do something about their environment at the local level instead of leaving
these issues entirely in the hands of national government officials. Ideally
this would mean treating pollution and other problems early on, instead of
waiting until a crisis occurs.
Environmental Values Project: What are your most
interesting findings thus far? Can you draw any tentative conclusions from the
four case studies—any recommendations for Japan's environmental policy makers?
Kada: The four case studies illustrate two types of
community formation found in Japan: closely knit community (e.g., Minamata and
Lake Biwa) and loosely knit community (e.g., Niigata and Nagara). We discovered
that closely knit communities develop their own impetus for generating social
movements that lead to significant progress on the environment. Such communities
also tend to be more progressive, with members stepping forward to take
responsibility for the community's future. For the purposes of our research, we
have named these individuals "framers": they frame the context in which the
community develops. In loosely knit communities, by contrast, there is less
impetus to seek solutions to environmental problems. Likewise, local leadership
is harder to cultivate.
In addition to the "framers", there are two other kinds of local actors that
need to be taken into account in the community. The first is the ordinary person
who may not be consciously aware of the so-called "environmental issues" in his
or her community, but who has a deep knowledge of the local history and culture.
Other local people tend to be active and knowledgeable about the environmental
issues but tends to be idealistic about addressing them. My intention is to
empower and bring together these two types of local people so that their
involvement with local environmental concerns is grounded more fully in their
actual experiences and perceptions.
At the policy level, the central government has to take into account the
interests of various and dissimilar bureaucratic bodies and thus their
environmental policy tends to be more conservative. We found that when local
governments had pro-environment values and were allowed to manage the
decision-making process, they were often able to act far more radically and
effectively than the central government could.
Environmental Values Project: Our project has the
ambitious aim of comparing environmental values across countries as different as
Japan, Chian, India, and the United States. What are some interesting
comparisons that you have noted among these four countries? Would your
recommendations for Japan apply to the other countries in the study, or are we
talking about apples and oranges?
Kada: Environmental policy is distinctive in each
of the four countries under study. For instance, I've observed that in the
United States, people subscribe to the ethos of nature conservation as something
separate from their daily lives. Whereas in the other three countries (Japan,
China, India), emphasis is placed not only on securing healthy environmental
conditions but also on enhancing people's lives through resource allocation. In
separating man from nature, Americans have effectively placed environmental
values on a higher—one could even say, more aesthetic—plane than we Asians tend
to.
Environmental Values Project: Do you have any plans
for a follow-up study once the research finishes? Can you already identify some
new directions to which the research lends itself?
Kada: Japanese environmental policies are changing
very rapidly, and we would probably want to extend our study to include some of
the current hot spots like Kawabegawa or Yoshinogawa. Both areas were slated for
water resource development in the 1960s—only to be abandoned because of the high
risk of environmental degradation. That Japanese policy makers are giving
priority to the utilization of scarce resources like water is an encouraging
trend, well worth exploring.
We are also interested in further investigation of water resource and
pollution issues in China and India, where we've observed interesting
similarities and differences with Japan throughout the course of this project.
All three countries have a common monsoon climate as well as a heavy dependency
on surface water because of rice paddy production. The Japan team would be
interested in seeing what kind of impact community formation in India and China
has on environmental decision-making at both local and national levels.
For more information on Kada's work, read her research paper "Environmental
Justice in Japan: Case Studies of Lake Biwa, Nagara River, Minamata, and
Niigata-Minamata."
Related LinksDiseases Caused By Environmental Pollution
- Minimata
Disease
Brief summary of the disaster at Minimata Bay, including a
description of how it came about and the human health implications later
collectively referred to as Minimata Disease. From American University website.
- Effects of Minimata Bay Disaster in Niigata
Chapter 4 of an
on-line book, Industrial pollution in Japan, published by United Nations
University. Explains the origin, spread, and effects of Minimata Disease in the
context of Japanese industrial and ecological history.
- Yokkaichi Asthma
Article by Jun Kagawa in Tokyo's
Department of Hygiene and Public Health, describing this asthma-related disease
caused by extensive atmospheric pollution in Yokkaichi.
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