The German Association for Social Science Research on Japan (VSJF) held its 2003 annual meeting at the Evangelische Akademie Tutzing near Munich, Germany, from November 21-23. The conference title was ”Nature, Ecology, and Environment in Japan - Sustainable Development and Regionalization.” Klaus Vollmer (Munich University and president of the VSJF) organized the conference together with Martin Held from the Evangelische Akademie Tutzing.

In their choice of environmental and regional issues as theme for the conference, the organizers were motivated by two questions: First, they wanted to provide a fresh look at Japanese environmental politics. In the 1970s and 1980s, Japanese environmental politics and policies earned the country the reputation as an innovator and global leader. In current political discourse and reform debates, however, environmental questions are rarely mentioned. What happened to Japanese environmental politics? Are Japanese governments no longer concerned with environmental issues? Or are environmental policies dwarfed by other political problems, such as the current fiscal and economic crisis? Is environmental policy-making still an issue of concern for the national government, or has the center of activity shifted from the national to the regional and local levels? The conference aimed at providing an overview of the current state of and recent trends in environmental politics in Japan.

Second, the conference intended to place Japanese environmental politics into a broader regional context. After a decade of climate negotiations, and as a consequence of economic growth and related environmental problems in other East Asian countries, especially China, our understanding of Japanese environmental politics benefits greatly if we take the situation in the East Asian region into account.

The conference featured ten plenary presentations and four workshops which were devoted to in-depth discussion of specific issues and the presentation of ongoing research and work in progress. Conference languages were German and English. Personal simultaneous translators (whispering) were provided. The conference venue in a beautifully renovated old castle also provided conference participants from Germany, Austria, Britain, Japan, Canada, and the United States with opportunities for further discussion in the salons or during walks in the park and along the lake.

The conference started out with two presentations that placed Japanese environmental politics into context. In her presentation ”The Rise and Fall of a Model - Evaluating Japanese Environmental Politics,” Gesine Foljanty-Jost (Martin-Luther-University, Halle-Wittenberg) analyzed the role of environmental issues in current Japanese domestic policy-making. She argued that while Japan has lost its pioneer role of the 1970s and 1980s, Japan is building new capacities in environmental policy making that might well enable the country to return to the group of environmental leaders in the future. Miranda Schreurs (University of Maryland, College Park) addressed ”The Politics of Environmental Modernization in Japan and Germany.” Her presentation provided a comparative framework that pointed out similarities and differences between Japanese, German, and American environmental policies. While globalization and the existence of common environmental problems might suggest a trend towards convergence in environmental politics, differences in domestic policy-making processes, such as civil society involvement in political decision-making, account for different outcomes.

The evening of the first day featured a keynote speech by Ernst-Ulrich von Weizsäcker, member of the German parliament and Head of the Parliamentary Committee on the Environment, Conservation, and Nuclear Safety. Weizsäcker discussed in his presentation problems related to climate change and the international negotiations about the Kyoto Protocol. He specifically addressed German, Japanese, and American approaches to global climate change and environmental protection.

The next day started with a panel that placed Japanese environmental politics in a broader regional context. The first presentation by Derek Hall (Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada) addressed ”Stagnation and Transformation in the Political Ecology of Japan-Asia Relations.” Using the example of shrimp farming, Hall pointed out how actions and preferences of Japanese firms, consumers, and political actors have caused and still cause environmental problems in Southeast Asian countries. His presentation showed that environmental problems and related change influence the political economy in the East Asian region. Reinhard Drifte (Professor Emeritus, University of Newcastle, UK) switched the focus of Japan’s regional environmental politics from Southeast to Northeast Asia. His presentation about ”Transboundary Pollution as an Issue in Northeast Asian Politics” addressed environmental politics as an issue in the international relations of Japan, China, and South Korea. Drifte argued that although transboundary pollution produces increasingly urgent problems not only for the citizens of the three countries, but also for their economies, sub-regional cooperation and joint approaches to problem solving are still rather underdeveloped. While there is a high potential for future conflict due to the fact that most of the pollution originates in China, existing forums for discussion provide a good opportunity to study the effects of technology transfer and the creation of transnational institutions.

After the discussion of Japan’s environmental politics in a broader international context in the East Asian region, the second panel addressed regional approaches in environmental policy-making within Japan. Agata Koichiro (Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan) addressed in his presentation ”Recycling and the Role of Regions in Japan.” Agata gave an overview of the legal framework of Japanese waste management and recycling policy and provided data to illustrate the state of recycling in Japan today. While Japan’s decentralized recycling system earned the country an internationally leading position in recycling and waste management, in contrast to Germany, there are no fees that could provide economic incentives for firms to avoid waste and increase resource productivity. The presentation by Thomas Feldhoff (University of Duisburg-Essen) discussed ”Construction Industry Lobbying and Sustainable Regional Development in Japan - the Case of Isahaya.” Using the example of the Isahaya bay land reclamation project, Feldhoff argued that the concept of Japan as a ”construction state” was valid not only on the national, but also on the regional and local levels in Japan. Feldhoff introduced the various actors interested in the realization of the Isahaya bay project, and illustrated the workings of the ”iron triangle” of politicians, bureaucrats, and construction firms.

The topic of vested interests was also central to the presentation by Winfried Flüchter (University of Duisburg-Essen), ”Contextualizing the Rice Market in Japan - Globalization, Ideology and Sustainability.” Flüchter provided an analysis of the discourse on the liberalization of the Japanese rice market and put the arguments in the context of global trade in agricultural products, structural problems in Japanese agriculture, and problems of sustainability. Flüchter argued that an opening of the Japanese rice market would produce negative ecological outcomes for Japan. However, the official discourse about rice in Japan does not take these issues into account and rather focuses on ideological positions about the role of rice as a key element in Japanese culture. The presentation by Raimund Bleischwitz (Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment, Energy; Research Management and Factor Four Research Desk) addressed ”Perspectives on Sustainable Development in Japanese Economy and Society.” Bleischwitz discussed ways in which an increase in resource productivity could be a means to help Japan overcome the current economic crisis. While current discourses focus mostly on the productivity of labor they also tend to neglect the costs for material. Bleischwitz analyzed new developments in Japan to increase eco-efficiency and pointed out that the institutional setting in Japan has led to different developments in the creation of knowledge and innovation in Europe and Japan.

The conference ended with a panel discussion about ”Nature, Ecology, and Environment in East Asia - Perspectives for Politics, Economy, and Society”, featuring Gesine Foljanty-Jost (Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg), Winfried Flüchter, and Werner Pascha (both University of Duisburg-Essen). The statements on the panel and the ensuing discussion helped to sum up major findings of the conference. Participants also pointed out avenues for future research, such as for example the relationship between environmental and security politics, and possible tensions between ecological sustainability and social development.

Klaus Vollmer (Munich University)
Verena Blechinger (Hamilton College, NY)

The conference program included panels organized independently by the VSJF sections. If you are interested in these events and their results, please contact the speakers directly. Sections are active in the fields of:

cultural studies and media

education

economics

politics

sociology and social anthropology

urban & regional studies

In addition, a workshop was held in conjunction with the annual conference on "Cognitive Models, Institutional Economics, and Japanese Studies". Again, if you are interested in the events organized by the Association's workshops, please contact the speakers directly.

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