2025 Volume 81 Issue 8 Article ID: 24-00299
Public participation has been introduced in public projects to deepen people’s understanding of the project and to ensure smooth consensus building. However, there are many projects in which consensus building face difficulty, and when it becomes difficult, various social problems are incurred. In order to avoid such a situation, it is helpful to clarify the factors that cause the difficulty of consensus building and the transition process of the consensus building. In this study, we sent a questionnaire survey to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) and local governments in Japan, and asked them about the projects in which they had encountered difficulties, focusing on the factors that caused the difficulties, and the transition process of those consultations over projects. The results showed that even projects that the consultations seem to be fairly simple can encounter difficulties, and that the causes vary from project to project. In addition, the results indicate that trust in authority can be a critical branch factor in the consultation process, and that procedural fairness factors, such as information disclosure, are fundamentally important in avoiding conflict.
