The National Science Foundation's (NSF) Tokyo Office periodically receives and disseminates reports on research developments in Japan that are related to the Foundation's mission. NSF-sponsored researchers currently working in Japan prepare many of these reports. These reports present information for use by NSF program managers and policy makers; they are not statements of NSF policy.
Ms. Dana R. Fisher, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Sociology at University of Wisconsin-Madison, prepared the following report. Ms. Fisher was a participant in the 1999 Summer Institute sponsored in the United States by NSF/NIH/USDA and the Science and Technology Agency and Japan Science and Technology Corporation in Japan. Dr. Tsuneyuki Morita of National Institute for Environmental Studies, Environment Agency, hosted Ms. Fisher. Ms. Fisher can be reached via email at: dfisher@ssc.wisc.edu
This summer, I came to Japan with high hopes: I wanted to begin to learn about the relationship between the major actors involved in implementing the Kyoto Protocol for Global Climate Change in Japan. Although an overly ambitious project, through the generous support of the United States National Science Foundation, the Japanese Science and Technology Agency and the Japan International Science and Technology Exchange Center, I hoped to be able to begin to collect data on this subject for my dissertation.
During my stay in Japan, I worked with Professor Tsuneyuki Morita at the National Institute for Environmental Studies. Professor Morita's experiences as head of the environmental economics program at the Institute, as well as his work with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) significantly contributed to my understanding of the Kyoto Protocol and the implementation process presently taking place in Japan. Through the Institute, I gained access to significant social, economic and environmental data available on the OECD. With the additional help of my older contacts at the United Nations University in Tokyo, I received introductions to academics, governmental officials, industry representatives, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), and members of the media, many of whom are key players within the debate about Japan's approach to mitigating global climate change.
By the end of the summer, I had conducted qualitative interviews with eighteen people from these diverse sectors of Japanese society. These people represent a snowball sample of those who are involved in the debate about implementation and adoption of the Kyoto Protocol in Japan. My interviews focused on the national debates surrounding adoption of global climate changing measures and the specific roles that the interviewees saw for each sector in dealing with global climate change. Through my interviews, I aimed to test the social scientific theories that claim that new political coalitions are being formed between actors from different sectors making environmental protection politically feasible in advanced industrial nations. These theories expect that actors from science, industry, social movements and the state will work together to make environmental protection possible and they assert that social movements, as represented by NGOs and the citizenry, will play an integral role in this process.
The preliminary results of my Japanese research suggest flaws in the argument about how political possibility is created. In particular, there is consensus among those whom I interviewed regarding the absence of what social scientists call an active "civil society" in Japan, at least at the national level. The results of my preliminary research has significant theoretical and political implications
The next step in my research is to return to Japan in early 2000 to further test my results by conducting more interviews regarding the role of different actors in the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol. I will specifically focus on better understanding the roles of social movements and civil society in the implementation and adoption process. One way to study these dynamics is to look at the news-making process and the actual news coverage on global warming in Japan as a means of gaining insights into the citizenry and public opinion regarding global climate change. Through interviews with members of the media, I hope to gain a better understanding of both public opinion and the potential role of civil society in the global climate change debate.
In addition to interviewing journalists, I will speak with other members of the government and conduct follow-up interviews with representatives of the major national social movement organizations. As another step in understanding the relationship between Japanese civil society and the global climate change regime, I will interview two particularly successful organizations that have motivated citizens to respond to the concerns of global climate change on a local level. By working towards a more in depth understanding of the different roles that citizens are playing in response to the issue of global climate change, I will develop a more nuanced view of civil society in Japan and gain a better understanding of the implications of my research.
Right now is a very exciting time for Japan: in October 1998, the "Law Concerning the Promotion of the Measures to Cope with Global Warming" (Law Number 117 of 1998) was adopted requiring local governments to take inventories of global warming gas emissions and suggesting voluntary measures to be taken by Japanese industry. Although not as strong a policy as many Japanese might want, this country's work on global climate change is the most progressive anywhere in the world. In addition, Japan is host to the fourth working group of the IPCC. Although it will be a while before my research is completed and I have come to my final conclusions, the unique relationship between the different sectors of Japanese society makes it a remarkable example of an advanced industrialized nation responding to global climate change.