By examining the issues of environmental policy formation and implementation linked to economic development, and reviewing the Japanese experiences and the examples of other Asian countries, this book reveals factors of dynamism between environmental policy and social change in a domestic, regional and global context.

This book is a must; it is best reading for all interested in or working on environmental policy formulation and implementation, be it in a polluted industrial country or in a polluting developing country. Environmentalist . . . a well-conceptualized analysis of the evolution of Japan s environmental policies and programmes. . . The quality of integration from chapter to chapter is much superior to that of most multiple-author texts. International Sociology Review of Books The eleven contributors to this book provide profound retrospective view son the fearsome damage inflicted on the environment of Japan and on its people during the rapid economic growth period from late 1950s to the early 1970s. The book also presents a clear vision of how developing countries might draw lessons from Japan s experiences in overcoming some of its pollution problems. Hiroshi Ohta, Pacific Affairs This is, I m sure, the most comprehensive and the best book ever on Japan s environmental policy. This book is a must; it is best reading for all interested in or working on environmental policy formulation and implementation, be it in a polluted industrial country or in a polluting developing country. Udo E. Simonis, Internationales Asienforum The volume is a great source to explain what factors have made Japanese pollution control policy so successful. . . Imura and Schreurs have unveiled the intricacies of Japanese pollution control policy in this volume. The book can be used at the undergraduate and graduate level, particularly as a stepping stone in projects focused on minimization of contaminant emissions and on Japanese environmental policy and politics. Raul Pacheco-Vega, Global Environmental Politics A gold mine of information, this book gives a balanced, comprehensive, and authoritative analysis of Japan s environmental policy and candidly covers both its considerable achievements and persistent limitations. Although this volume focuses on issues of policy implementation, it impressively addresses most aspects of environmental issues in Japan. . . This is indeed a superb book that provides encyclopedia-like information about environmental issues in Japan and is unmatched, especially in its emphasis on policy implementation. Lam Peng Er, Journal of Japanese Studies Japanese environmental management style is in many ways distinct from that found in Europe or the USA. There is less emphasis on litigation, more emphasis on administrative guidance and considerable use of voluntary mechanisms for policy implementation. This volume considers what factors may have contributed to Japan s relatively successful efforts at dealing with severe industrial pollution and problems associated with rapid urbanization. The book introduces Japan s environmental history, its key environmental regulations and the forces that have driven Japan to introduce these environmental regulations and programs. It also examines the various formal and informal institutional mechanisms and policy instruments that have been introduced over the past several decades to implement pollution control and energy conservation. The authors conclude by putting Japan s environmental policy experiences in comparative perspective and considering what useful lessons can be drawn from the Japanese experience for developing nations. Providing a detailed analysis of environmental policies and policy instruments in Japan by leading experts in the field, this book will be of great interest to students of environmental policy and politics and policymakers concerned with environmental protection in Asia.

Environmental Policies in Asia highlights the environmental challenges Asian planners and policymakers face as the continent undergoes rapid economic growth in the 21st Century. Edited by Jing Huang and Shreekant Gupta, with contributions from leading Asian scholar practitioners, this timely and unique volume is the first of its kind to look at environmental policies and governance from the perspective of seven dynamic Asian countries. These include developed economies of Japan and Singapore, emerging giants such as China and India and rapidly developing nations such as Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia. The volume discusses environmental challenges that stem from issues as local as poor recycling practices, to ones that are as vast and complex as global climate change. Engaging, accessible, and pan-Asian in scope, the essays also present creative ways in which these challenges are being addressed. This book is valuable to anyone who is keen on understanding Asia, its growth, and whether its rise is environmentally sustainable.

This unique book traces the origins and evolution of environmental policy formation, comparing the differences in this process between developing and developed countries. It focuses on the importance of the state’s role and issues of timing and sequence in the creation of environmental policies.

The study focuses on Japan's policies toward international environmental issues and includes case studies on whaling, deforestation in the tropics, and acid deposition in Asia.

First published in 1991. Japanese attitudes to pollution and environmental protection were distinctly equivocal. The Japanese are a nature-loving people, yet they are responsible for widespread environmental destruction; Japan has some of the world’s strictest environmental quality standards, but the country also has some of the world’s most environmentally damaged areas. In this book the authors present a broad and detailed analysis of policy and process in Japan in the late twentieth century. Brendan Barrett and Riki Therivel, who both have extensive research experience in Japan, describe interest group participation in Japan’s environmental policy-making and give an historical review of the relationship between economic growth and environmental problems. They look at the framework for environmental policy-making and outline the system for environmental management. This is complemented by a discussion of Environmental Impact Assessment, and by live case studies of the practical realities of EIA in Japan. With environmental problems reaching global proportions, countries all over the world have much to learn from the experience of Japan, and the book will be extremely useful to national government officials, to local planning officers responsible for EIA, and to environmental consultants working for commercial and industrial companies. It will also be essential reading for students of geography, environmental studies, Japanese studies and planning economics.

Why Asia? Significance and Purpose of The State of the Environment in Asia 1. Asia and the Future of the Global 2. From Swift Progress to Big Problems Environment Because in recent years Asia has been called the center of world economic growth, until now global attention fo Western social scientists used to regard Asia as a "stag cused on the region has regarded it solely as one of swift nant society," and, except for Japan, people have thought of progress. postwar Asia as a region that is typical of the continuing But while this East Asia-centered rapid economic "vicious circle of poverty." I growth gave Asia its momentum, industrialization and ur But in contrast to other developing regions, since the banization were causing environmental and urban problems latter half of the 1960s or 1970s South Korea, Taiwan, Hong throughout the region, as well as destroying rural communi Kong, and Singapore were the first to follow in Japan's foot ties and those countries' historical and cultural traditions.

Amidst growing environmental concerns worldwide, Japan is seen as particularly vulnerable to the effects of changing climate. This book considers Japan’s response to the climate change problem from the late 1980s up to the present day, assessing how the Japanese government’s policy-making process has developed over time. From the early days of climate change policy in Japan, through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change conferences and Kyoto Protocol, right up to the 2015 negotiations, the book examines the environmental, economic, and political factors that have shaped policy. As the 2015 Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change projects forward beyond 2020, the book concludes by analyzing how Japan has placed itself in the global climate change debate and how the country might and should respond to the problem in the future, based on the findings from accumulated history.

The economies located in East, South and Southeast Asia have witnessed an interesting growth-sustainability trade-off over the last decades. While growth considerations have paved ways for deepened ties with growing trade-investment waves and increasing population pressure necessitated exploitation of hitherto unutilized natural resources, focus on environmental sustainability has been a recent consideration. The growth impetus still playing a key role in these economies, it becomes imperative that the countries effectively address the key sustainability concerns, e.g. air and water pollution, land degradation, loss of biodiversity, climate change issues like CO2 emissions etc. But how prepared is the governance mechanism of these countries, covering not only the legislative and administrative framework but also involvement of the judiciary, presence of spirited civil society and active engagement of stakeholders in policy-framing dialogues, to rise up to these challenges? The book seeks an answer to this question through the environmental governance mechanism and natural resource conservation policies in three vibrant regions within Asia. A holistic development dimension of sustainable development path emerges, through discussion of policies adopted by developed (Japan, South Korea), upper-middle (China, Malaysia), developing (India, Indonesia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand) and least developed countries (Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal).

In December 1977 we published the first in this series of NGO-oriented reports on Asia's environment, Ajia Kankyo Hakusho 1997/98. This was published in English by Springer-Verlag as The State o/the Environment in Asia 1999/2000. Although only a few years have passed since then, Asia has seen tumultuous changes in the political, economic, social, environmental, and other domains, as well as a number of prominerit trends that could be regarded as harbingers of the new century. China, for instance, could henceforth decisively affect the evolution of environmental problems not only in Asia, but across the entire globe. Yet Chinese concern for and initiatives on pollution and environmental damage have increased more quickly than could have been anticipated just a few years ago. And on Taiwan, where a Democratic Progressive Party president was elected over the long-ruling Nationalist Party, an attorney who has cooperated with our pollution surveys for a decade, Hsieh Chang-ting, became mayor of Taiwan's largest heavy and chemical industry city of Kaohsiung, where he has begun a "Green Revolution. " On the Ko rean Peninsula, which has for many years endured the division of its people, as well as political and military tensions, there are the beginnings of a new North-South dialog. These changes are all welcome to those of us who wish to see new advances in environmental cooperation throughout Asia.