Abstract
If we call righteousness which the law has to pursue because the law is the law “legal justice,” this “legal justice” requires public authorities to obey existing legal rules. Results of some survey researches show, however, that the Japanese people tend to expect public authorities to realize particularistic “justice for here and now” rather than to obey existing legal rules. This contradiction between a requirement derived form “legal justice” and a popular expectation seems to put public authorities in doublebind situations. But the same contradiction can be interpreted as that which gives public authorities chance to acquire two sorts of power resources which they can use for the purpose of enhancing the possibility that their decisions are accepted by those who are disadvantaged by those decisions. Based on these understandings, “ordinances for the promotion of compliance” which are enacted by local governments and “nuclear safety agreements” between local governments and electric power companies are analyzed. Both of them show that local governments sometimes put high priority on the realization of popular expectations rather than obedience to legal rules.
