Environmental Policy in Japan (review)

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. These include the roles of formal and informal institutions, local and national governments, political parties, key industry players, citizen activism and nascent NGOs, and global environmental standards and trends in Japanese policymaking and implementation.

The contributors raise a number of interesting puzzles: despite suffering from some of the most severe cases of environmental pollution in the world caused by the single-minded emphasis on rapid industrialization in the 1950s and 1960s, why was Japan able to switch to a new mode of industrial pollution control within just a few years? Why was it possible for government and industry to address pollution while continuing to grow economically? How is Japanese environmental management style distinct from that in the West? Why is Japan at the vanguard of pollution control despite the absence of a Green Party and powerful environmental movements or organizations at the national level?

A key reason for the coherence and quality of the volume is the eight chapters contributed by coeditor Imura (he is coauthor of three and sole author of five). Another pleasing feature of this volume is that eight out of the eleven contributors are Japanese scholars,¹ which gives the international community of scholars and specialists the opportunity to hear the voices of indigenous Japanese scholars finely translated and edited in the English language.

The first cluster of chapters analyzes Japanese environmental policy from historical, institutional, and developmental perspectives. Certain unique features of Japanese policymaking include advisory councils, informal "administrative guidance," close consultation and collaboration between bureaucrats and industry players, and the polluter pays principle (PPP). This first group of chapters also examines how domestic politics and foreign pressure (gaiatsu) have shaped the country's environmental policies.

The second group of chapters focuses on policy instruments such as regulations, environmental impact assessments, voluntary approaches (such as pollution control agreements), financial assistance by the central government to localities to address environmental problems, and the role of environmental technology in pollution control. The third set of chapters adopts a comparative perspective: an assessment of Japan's environmental management experiences and their relevance for Asia from a Chinese perspective, and an excellent comparison of environmental policymaking among Japan, the European Union, and the United States by Miranda Schreurs.

Many insights can be gleaned from this volume but I can highlight here only a few. First, Japan's environmental policy has been the most effective and impressive in minimizing industrial pollution, especially through advanced technological measures. Second, the environmental record in preserving nature including wildlife, rivers, and coastlines is less impressive given the government's emphasis on public works spending (the highest percentage among the G7 countries in terms of gross domestic product), especially on roads and dams to stimulate local economies, support construction companies, create jobs, and win votes for ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) politicians.

Third, Japan's ability to make a rapid turnaround in its environmental policy was due not only to severe environmental pollution and the LDP's pragmatism to obviate rising citizen protest movements, which threatened to erode its perennial one-party dominance, but also to the informal nexus based on close consultation and collaboration between the policy networks comprising the ruling party, the bureaucracy, and industry. Japan's rapid implementation of environmental policies is, in part, due to the fact that the interests of industry are already discussed and taken into consideration by the ruling party and relevant ministries before these regulations are formulated.

Fourth, environmental protection, which was politically and vigorously contested in the 1960s over its desirability, priority, and affordability, has increasingly become the norm in Japan today. National and local governments, industry, the bureaucracy (with a newly constituted Ministry of the Environment in 2001), and citizens...