Thirty-fIve years of environmental policy in Japan: a call for environmental structural change

Abstract

This paper examines 35 years of Japanese environmental policy with reference to the results of the past three Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) environmental performance reviews and a policy stage analysis. A comparison with European Union (EU) and US environmental policies is used to evaluate current policy designed to attain the targcts sct by the Kyoto Protocol and consider future options for creating a Japanese society capable of meeting the challenges of climate change. In the 1980s, Japanese policy measures to decouple economic growth and the emission of pollutants met with great success, particularly in the case of sulphur dioxide emissions. However, this decoupling trend ceased in the 1990s and the emission of major greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide continued to rise. This paper, therefore, advocates substantial structural changes in environmental policy that go far beyond the technological and voluntary measures employed in the 1970s and 1980s. These include wide-ranging incentives such as ecological tax reforms and domestic emissions trading, as well as calls for the empowering of local initiatives and the realization of environmental democracy.