Abstract
Public involvement (PI) has recently been adopted in planning process of transportation infrastructure development in Japan, which increased communication with the public. However, PI communication still remains one-way and limited, whose process does not effectively prevent public disputes. This study defines such PI as conventional PI, and proposes more effective PI, defined as substantive PI. It points out that conventional PI has problems of procedural justice and creates causes of disputes due to concerns about plans’ potential adverse impact. It also discusses importance of process-control to improve procedural justice and effectiveness of creative problem-solving methods to provide a win-win settlement through interest-based communication in negotiation theory. It further analyzes policies to alleviate the impact in welfare economic perspective, and indicates possibility of mitigation policies to relieve external cost and increase social surplus. Finally, it proposes requirements for substantive PI, which effectively prevents public disputes based on prior analyses.
