Residents' Degree of Acquisition of Environmental Information and Its Relation to Social Capital and Environmental Programs: a Case Study of Nagano City

Abstract

Nagano city in Nagano prefecture, Japan, is an environmentally advanced municipality that terms itself an “environmentally harmony city”. We have studied the effects of social capital and environmental information on the level of the residents' perception of the impact of environmental programs in Nagano City through a survey (questionnaire).

The results show that, in the structural model, bonding social capital has a higher contribution to the level of perception of program impact, through the awareness level of program impact, than that of bridging social capital. And, though the Internet, regulated by bridging social capital, offers large amounts of information, only the city bulletin, regulated by bonding social capital, determines the level of perception of program impact. Bonding social capital is effective in raising the level of perception of program impact. Local computerization, through the application of ICT, is necessary for the formation of social capital and the improvement of the level of perception of program impact.