Ecological Modernisation and Japan

In the 1990s, Japan gradually began to turn green and started to experiment with more participatory forms of environmental governance. Ecological Modernisation and Japan explores this transformation and looks at Japan as a case for ecological modernization while contextualizing the discussion within its unique history and recent discussions about globalization and sustainability. It makes a significant contribution to the ecological modernization debate by unpacking the Japanese environmental experience. Leading scholars in the field from Japan, the USA and the UK examine existing pressures on, and changes to, domestic environmental management structures. In addition, the book explores tensions that have emerged in relation to, and discourses that surround, the contemporary form of environmental governance in Japan. This implies the need for Japan to respond to global policy initiatives in the post Johannesburg Summit era while at the same time, to incorporate concerns about the importance ofpromoting new indigenous approaches to policy-making more firmly based on the unique cultural characteristics of the Japanese.