2008 Volume 7 Pages 205-221
This is a comparative study of environmental consciousness between China and Japan, mainly regarding forests. We used questionnaires to research environmental consciousness of urban and rural elementary school students in China and Japan. The research was conducted in underdeveloped Sichuan and developed Fujian Provinces of China, and in Tokyo and Gunma Prefectures of Japan. We introduced five aspects of environmental consciousness: environmental sensitivity, attitude, conduct, knowledge, and participation. We performed multiple comparison testing using nonparametric tests. Overall, the results indicated that Chinese students' environmental consciousness is higher than Japanese students, with highest levels in Sichuan Province, followed by Fujian Province and Japan. Rural Sichuan students scored highest in sensitivity, conduct, knowledge, and participation. Urban Sichuan students scored highest in attitude, followed by rural Sichuan students. Japanese students scored lowest in attitude, knowledge, and participation, but higher in conduct than Chinese students, except for rural Sichuan students. Fujian students ranked between Japan and Sichuan.
