DIVERSITY PATTERNS OF ATTITUDES TOWARD NATURE AND ENVIRONMENT IN JAPAN, USA, AND EUROPEAN NATIONS

Abstract

This paper analyzes the longitudinal changes of Japanese attitudes toward nature and environment (ATNE) using Japanese character survey data, and explores the structural characteristics of response patterns to the ATNE in Japan, USA and five European nations based on analytical results derived from cross-national survey data. We also discuss the relationships of respondent’s attributes relative to the structure of their response patterns using the visual configuration obtained by correspondence analysis. In addition, we verify how racial, cultural, geographic diversities change people’s ATNE in various circumstances. As a result, we have found that Japan is similar to France, and Germany is similar to Britain and the Netherlands. We have also seen that the USA is similar to Italy in the aspect of the ATNE whereas the Japanese have their own distinctive structures of response patterns to the ATNE when compared to the Americans and the Europeans.