Study Guide for Course SG/3043 Japanese Environments

This Guide includes the course outline and key reading list for Course SG/3043, and will eventually include lecture outlines, key concepts, reading lists and revision questions for each of the ten lectures given in the course, which will be posted after each lecture has been given. Check the SOAS Website for availability of reading materials in the SOAS Library, which is the primary information resource for this course, although substantial numbers of key texts are also now available in the Maughan Library. This course was formerly known (in its pre-merger guise) as G306 The Japanese Environment.

This Guide is being written by the Course Convenor, Richard Wiltshire, to whom all enquiries should be addressed.

Lecture Schedule:

• Week 1: The environment in Japanese culture
• Week 2: Japan's physical structure
• Week 3: Living with earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunami
• Week 4: Japanese climates: living with the taifu
• Week 5: Urban and industrial pollution in postwar Japan
• Week 6: Environmental movements in postwar Japan
• Week 7: Environmental policy in postwar Japan
• Week 8: The atom and the environment
• Week 9: Agriculture and the rural environment
• Week 10: Woods and Whales: Japan's ecological shadow

September 28, 2000: After a light overnight snowfall, the first of the autumn, Mount Fuji reveals is summit through the surrounding clouds. The outstanding feature of Japan's landscape, Mount Fuji is also a potent cultural symbol and focus of national identity.   Image by the course convenor, taken on a Korean Air flight from Tokyo (Narita) to Seoul.

Course Unit Value: 0.5 Units.

Course Convenor: Dr Richard Wiltshire.

Method of Assessment: One two hour unseen written examination (100%) to be taken in May/June2003. Click for past examination papers (as G306).

Teaching: 20 lectures (in 10 x 2 hour blocks), First Semester, Tuesday 3-5, Room 1B23 (Strand Main Building).

Basic Reading:

Asquith, P and A Kalland (eds). Japanese Images of Nature: Cultural Perspectives. London: Curzon; 1997.

Barret, Brendan and Riki Therivel. Environmental Policy and Impact Assessment in Japan. London: Routledge; 1991.

Broadbent, Jeffrey. Environmental Politics in Japan : Networks of Power and Protest. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 1998.

Berque, Augustin. Nature, Artifice and Japanese Culture. Northamptonshire: Pilkington Press; 1997.

Dauvergne, P. Shadows in the Forest : Japan and the Politics of Timber in Southeast Asia. Cambridge: MIT; 1998.

Hadfield, Peter. Sixty Seconds That Will Change The World: The Coming Tokyo Earthquake. London: Sidgwick & Jackson; 1991.

Huddle, N and M Reich. Island of Dreams: Environmental Crisis in Japan. Vermont: Schenkman Books, Second Edition; 1987.

Peng-Er, Lam. Green Politics in Japan. London: Routledge; 1999.

Trewartha, Glenn T. Japan: A Geography. London: Methuen, 1965.

Tsuru, Shigeto. The Political Economy of the Environment: The Case of Japan. London: Athlone Press; 1999.

Ui, J (ed.). Industrial Pollution in Japan. Tokyo: United Nations University Press; 1992.

Other references will be cited in full in the recommended reading for individual lectures. There is no one basic text for this course. Students will find it helpful to have to hand during lectures a map of Japan showing physical features: suitable maps are available from leading bookshops and from Stanfords map shop (Long Acre).