Abstract
(1) Environmental Problems and the Perspective of Environmental Sociology
(2) Recently interest in the field of environmental sociology has grown dramatically within Japan as well as the United States and internationally. The Japanese Association for Environmental Sociology which was set up in 1990 already has 149 members (now 200) including other social scientists, natural scientists and environmentalists.
Japanese environmental sociologists have mainly focused on pollution problems and environmental problems at the local community level in contrast with typical American interests in the topics of population, energy and resources at the global level.
One of the major controversies in the field is on the definition of environmental sociology. Riley Dunlap advocated that environmental sociology should be an alternative way based on the "New Ecological Paradigm" beyond the sociology of environmental issues remained within "Human Exceptionalism Paradigm". But some scholars criticized the new paradigm resulted in vain and stressed the field survey and the analysis of substantial problems.
A major opinion among Japanese scholars is that environmental sociology should focus on 1) the structure of victims, 2) the policy and the decision making process and 3) the movements and collective activities of the deprived people. I believe some scholars of sociology of law, Prof. Awaji, Abe and Yamamura, also share these interests.
Especially in one sense Japanese social movements face a deadlock. The Japanese judiciary and administration seem to succeed in maintaining the "repressive role" of law. But the price of the low responsiveness is the absence of a social movement sector that can act as a collaborative partner in policy making process and an inflexible of administration.
