2017 Volume 47 Issue 2 Pages 241-254
Raccoons did not originally live in Japan, but were imported as pets and then escaped or were released from their owners. Consequently, they have caused damage to agriculture, the ecosystem （by predation on native species）, and the life environment （due to noise and bad odors attendant to their presence） and also mediated rabies infections. In Hokkaido, a small raccoon population in FY1995 expanded to 147 out of the 179 municipalities by FY2015.
One cause of this expansion was the lack of knowledge about the quantitative value of the dam-age. The known quantitative value of the damage is limited to agricultural damages, which amounts to only 85 million yen per year. Consequently, social recognition of the damage caused by raccoons has been disparaged, and countermeasures inadequate.
With this as the background, we estimated the quantitative value of the damage caused by rac-coons in Hokkaido as social losses using the contingent valuation method （CVM）. Furthermore, we newly proposed an element segmentation method to estimate social losses based on CVM and then applied this new method to quantify the value of ecosystem damage, life environment dam-age, and infections.
We also analyzed the relationships between willingness to pay and the features of industry and consciousness in each region of Hokkaido by means of correlation analysis. On the basis of these results, we propose a countermeasure for raccoons and clearly specified priority regions for the countermeasures. In particular, we conclude the regions to concentrate on for the countermeasures for raccoons are the east and the dairy regions of Hokkaido.
JEL Classifications: Q51, Q56, Q57
