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  • The Ethics of Japan’s Global Environmental Policy: The Conflict Between Principles and Practice by Midori Kagawa-Fox
  • Miranda A. Schreurs (bio)
The Ethics of Japan’s Global Environmental Policy: The Conflict Between Principles and Practice. By Midori Kagawa-Fox. Routledge, London, 2012. xv, 203 pages. $135.00, cloth; $125.00, E-book.

How can one explain the paradox in Japanese global environmental policy? It is at the same time respectful of nature while being destructive of it. In this book, which grew out of a dissertation, Midori Kagawa-Fox explores the ethical dimensions of Japanese environmental policy in relation to domestic and global environmental issues, including cases of industrial pollution, whaling, nuclear energy, and domestic forestry and timber trade policy. Kagawa-Fox argues that too often ethical considerations are not given adequate consideration in government policy and that this has resulted in practices [End Page 498] that raise serious moral and ethical concerns in Japan’s relationship to nature and the environment.

The book’s introduction opens with a brief look at the industrial pollution (kōgai) of the past and the bottom-up pressures that contributed to a change in Japan’s growth-oriented industrial policies and to the introduction of pollution-control policies and technologies. These policies were late in coming but once implemented were quite successful. In contrast, Japan’s global environmental policy (GEP) has developed in a more top-down fashion in response to growing international environmental awareness. It has been supported as well by government and corporate interests that see economic potential in international environmental policies. The author argues that while Japan’s GEP has demonstrated “a firm and positive commitment” toward the protection of the global ecosystem, as demonstrated by Japan’s engagement in the climate change and other international environmental negotiations and introduction of various environmental policies and programs, many of these policies “are designed to prioritize the goals of Japanese vested interests, at the expense of the global ecology” (p. 1). The way sustainable development is interpreted in Japan is problematic, she argues. This is because there has been a stronger focus on the developmental rather than the environmental components of the concept and a lack of adequate attention to the notion of fairness, in regard to both humans and nonhumans.

Theoretically, the book explores what is meant by ethics and raises the question of whether there are different approaches to ethics in Japan and the West. We learn that the word ethics derives from the Greek ethos, which can be translated as morality, and that in many Western societies it has taken on Judeo-Christian conceptions. In the West, ethics are tied to biblical teachings, ethical traditions, and moral reasoning. The roots of environmental ethics are introduced and linked to early works, such as Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (Houghton Mifflin, 1962) and Limits to Growth by Donella H. Meadows, Jørgen Randers, and Dennis L. Meadows (Universe Books, 1972). A (very) brief introduction to classic theories of environmental ethics, including shallow and deep ecology, animal liberation, social ecology, and eco-feminism, is followed by a discussion of a “new” environmental ethics that is tied to the regional and multicultural dimensions of the global environment.

Most interesting in this theoretical chapter is its introduction to Japanese understandings of ethics and morality. The Japanese refer to ethics as rinri or “the maintenance of a healthy relationship with others in the community” (p. 23). In healthy relationships, wa (harmony) and kyōchō (concord) exist. In contrast with the Judeo-Christian conception of ethics with its religious connections and legal justifications, rinri has more to do with appropriate social interactions. The author also feels it important for the reader to understand the idea of Nihonjinron or the study of Japanese characteristics: [End Page 499] identity, ideology, cultural behavior, and all that which contributes to Japaneseness. In addition, she explains how the Shintō and Buddhist roots of Japan have led to beliefs in the intertwined nature of all things in the universe, a sense of harmony with nature, and a respectful and compassionate relationship to animals. Japanese conceptions of morality and ethics are also linked to the term dōtoku, which has...

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