Prologue :Quality of the Environment in Japan 1997

Prologue

Changes in the Last Quarter of a Century

This year is the 25th anniversary of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment which was held in Stockholm. During the quarter of a century that has ensued since that meeting took place, the environmental issues surrounding us have changed dramatically.

In past cases of industrial pollution, the polluters were usually companies or commercial enterprises, and the sufferers were normally residents in the immediate area that had been targeted by these companies. However, in more recent or contemporary instances of urban pollution and the global environment, all of us could become the polluters just as all of us could become the sufferers. In other words, our daily lives and everyday economic activities are the causes of environmental damage such as global warming and are behind current waste disposal problems.

Despite the changing nature of environmental problems there has been no commensurate advancement in public awareness, or in the measures. that are adopted to address environmental issues. Various forms of environmental pollution still remain as problematic, and the introduction of new methods to replace existing regulation-based measures has been very slow. Furthermore, on the part of the general public, there is little willingness to bear part of the cost of solving environmental problems.

How did this situation develop? One factor is that the general public is not well informed regarding environmental issues and is unfamiliar with existing scientific knowledge relevant to the subject. Another factor was underlined by a recent report which concluded, "Unlike the Western nations, in Japan, recognition of current situations and of the value of the environment does not necessarily lead directly to environmental conservation activities." The gap that exists between being aware of a problem and actually taking steps to address the same problem is considered to derive from causes embedded in our social structure, which force people to continue to carry out environmentally negative activities due to social necessity. Taking this into account, in order for conservation measures to be effective, it is necessary not only to raise our environmental awareness, but also to ensure that people can be motivated to take actual conservation action. Moreover, the present economic/social system needs to be changed in order to protect the environment.

Changes in the Quantity of Environment related Newspaper Coverage

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