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Lecture Outline:
Key Concepts: Kôgai (pollution: literally "destruction of the public domain"); continuity from problems associated with pre-war industrialisation; Japan's outdated image as the most polluted nation on earth; environmental problems in Edo; social confinement of pollution impacts to outcaste groups; expansion of pollution under Meiji modernisation; pattern of disregard (continuing post-war) for the environmental consequences of industrial activity (in name of national interest), local resistance, and grudging response from both polluters and the state; cotton textiles and minerals processing in early modernisation; opposition to point pollution problems in areas where the pollution costs were not born by stakeholders; example of farmers downstream from copper mines/smelters; copper as a vital Meiji export commodity; Ashio mine and the Furukawa company; risks inherent in Ashio's location; flooding and the contamination of rice fields; over 100,000 hectares of farmland affected; lack of scientific evidence a defence; Shozo Tanaka; arrests of farmers for "fomenting rebellion"; state suppression of the victims on the basis of "national security"; catchment basins as an alternative to abatement; compensation by relief from municipal land tax (effectively funded by victims); Sumitomo's Niihama works and solution through displacement; dispersal and the great chimney at the Hitachi works; pollution consequences of postwar dash for growth compounded by population concentration; sources of water pollution; eutrophication of inland waters; farm runoff and untreated human/domestic wastes; "red tides"; the four "major pollution cases" of the postwar era; Minamata disease as a case of water pollution from a point industrial source; history Nippon Chisso Corporation; location in Minamata by invitation; elitist company culture; consequences of "company castle town" status; token compensation to buy off fishermen; acetaldehyde production and the mercury catalyst; "suicide-prone groups of dancing cats"; methyl mercury poisoning; epidemiological evidence vs scientific proof; the company and academia in debunking of the "mercury theory"; social ostracism of victims; role of "Second Minamata" outbreak in Niigata (1965) in rekindling interest in the original; the battle to obtain official recognition for the cause of the disease vs the battle to gain compensation for its victims; court cases and the legal validity of epidemiological evidence; the 1996 'amicable settlement'; multiple sources of air pollution (eg cars); ease of addressing point sources; Yokkaichi Asthma; kombinat planning and the juxtaposition of chemical factories with residential areas; pollution by sulphur dioxide; municipal pollution-related health damage compensation scheme (1965, based on the polluter pays principles, the model for 1973 national legislation); political threat of anti-pollution movements in cities from late 1960s; 1970 Tokyo smog; the 64th Diet session of 1970 ("Pollution Diet"); subsequent rapid improvement as a consequence of (i) legislation, (ii) adjustment of industry to higher energy prices, (iii) change in industrial structure, and (iv) recession; continuing problem of NOx; problems of domestic (and industrial) waste disposal; recycling systems for metals and paper; disposal of unrecyclables; shortage of landfill sites; importance of incineration; dioxins. Revision Questions: 1. Give a reasoned account of the origins of any ONE major industrial pollution incident in postwar Japan. 2. "The 'Pollution Diet' successfully resolved Japan's air and water pollution problems". Discuss. 3. "Japan has suffered from urban and industrial pollution problems despite its physical geography, not because of it." Discuss. Recommended Reading: Brenden Barrett and Riki Therivel, Environmental Policy and Impact Assessment in Japan. London: Routledge, 1991, pp. 27-49 Kenji Fijita, "The municipal solid wastes problem". In: Department of Engineering, University of Tokyo (ed.), Contemporary Studies in Urban Planning and Environmental Management. Tokyo: Kajima Institute Publishing, 1994, pp. 199-214 Timothy S George, Minamata: Pollution and Struggle for Democracy in Postwar Japan. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001, 385 p Yoshiro Hoshino, "Japan's Post-Second World War Environmental Problems". In: Jun Ui (ed.), Industrial Pollution in Japan. Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 1992, pp. 64-76 Norie Huddle and Michael Reich, Island of Dreams: Environmental Crisis in Japan. Vermont: Schenkman Books, Second Edition, 1987, pp. 1-24, 51-132 Tomonori Matsuo, "Overview of environmental pollution management in Japan: History and social development in water pollution control". In: Department of Engineering, University of Tokyo (ed.), Contemporary Studies in Urban Planning and Environmental Management. Tokyo: Kajima Institute Publishing, 1994, pp. 148-168 Keibo Oiwa, Rowing the Eternal Sea: The Story of a Minamata Fisherman. Maryland: Rowman and Litttlefield, 2001, 193 p Kichiro Shoji and Masuro Sugai, "The Ashio Copper Mine Pollution Case: The Origins of Environmental Destruction". In: Jun Ui (ed.), Industrial Pollution in Japan. Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 1992, pp. 18-63 Shigeto Tsuru, "History of Pollution Control Policy". In: Shigeto Tsuru and Helmut Weidner (eds.), Environmental Policy in Japan. Berlin: Edition Sigma, 1989, pp. 15-42 Shigeto Tsuru, The Political Economy of the Environment: The Case of Japan. London: The Athlone Press, 1999, pp. 27-115 Jun Ui, "Overview". In: Jun Ui (ed.), Industrial Pollution in Japan. Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 1992, pp. 1-17 Jun Ui, "Minamata Disease". In: Jun Ui (ed.), Industrial Pollution in Japan. Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 1992, pp. 103-132 |