Ecological Modernization and Japan (review)

The eight chapters and conclusion in Ecological Modernization and Japan assess recent environmental, political, and industrial policies to determine whether Japan is an ecologically modern nation. The book accomplishes this task effectively, even though the ultimate conclusion remains, as the editor, Brendan F. D. Barrett, admits, disputable. Less effective is the book's critical engagement of the merits and demerits of ecological modernization theory more generally, particularly its tenuous connection to its scientific namesake. That is, ecological modernization theory historicizes industrialism, capitalism, attitudes toward nature, and pollution episodes, but fails to historicize equally dynamic transformations of the scientific meaning of ecology or even ecosystems.¹ Nonetheless, the editor and other authors should be commended for writing a well-researched status report of where Japan stands in its attempt to create a "clean, green state" (p. 176).

Ecological modernization theory posits that advanced industrial nations can foster environmental improvements and economic sustainability through adjustments in production and consumption habits. Essentially, it is industrial optimism on steroids, particularly given the alarming environmental status of the planet today. The theory advances that nations can retain their high levels of economic production and consumption and that, ultimately, more green policies and technological fixes can rescue some nations from environmental ruin. With this theoretical framework, Ecological Modernization and Japan examines the development of Japanese environmental stewardship at local, national, and international levels with an eye to the often contentious disputes that occur as a result of greener policies.

Chapter one, by Barrett and Dana R. Fisher, positions Japan as an instructive case study of ecological modernization. As the first industrial democracy outside Europe and the United States, the world's second largest economy (even after a decade of recession), and a country that, in the immediate postwar years, suffered horrific industrial pollution, Japan serves as an example of whether innovative environmental governance can right a once seriously listing ship. The chapter also examines the development, key components, and debates surrounding the introduction of ecological modernization theory in the social sciences, though the critics cited focus on the economically overly optimistic nature of the theory, rather than critique it from the perspective of the history of the ecological sciences. By linking itself with the natural sciences, the theory dangerously implies that technologically driven and pluralistically determined industrial capitalism represents the natural outcome of historical, economic, and ecological evolution, somewhat akin to an industrial "climax formation" reminiscent of the botanist Frederic Clements, even though ecologists discredit those teleological models in favor of more complex and nuanced ones.² Chapter one asserts that "Japan is experiencing a new phase of modernization in terms of its environmental governance system" (p. 9). Chapter two, also by Barrett, provides a surface examination of the history of Japanese environmental discourse, including literature on Japanese attitudes toward nature, infamous twentieth-century pollution debacles, and popular protest and political reform under the Pollution Diet of the early 1970s.

Chapters three through six comprise part two of the book. The third chapter, also by Barrett, outlines the history of the development of Japan's environmental bureaucracy in response to high-profile pollution problems. Important for ecological modernization is that the state becomes a facilitator of solutions in a pluralistic landscape of environmental stakeholders, ranging from energy corporations to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs): it is critical that environmental policymaking no longer be the sole domain of Japan's notoriously industry-friendly bureaucracy. In response to environmental dangers such as threatened animal species and high amounts of endocrine disruptors, an environmental bureaucracy has blossomed inside and outside the Japanese government. An impressive alliance of research institutes, NGOs, and advisory groups support the Ministry of the Environment (MOE); but, as Barrett acknowledges, whether bureaucratic pluralism can actually save a threatened frog and its wetland from development remains to be seen. That is, most of these reforms are merely superficial.

The arena of local governance represents part of the recent pluralism in decision making, as chapter four, by Barrett and Mikoto...