Proceedings of the General Meeting of the Association of Japanese Geographers

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1. Introduction The problem who is participating in an environmental movement in regional environmental problems has been analyzed in the historical sociology as "Collective action theory" and "Political participation theory". Attention tries to be paid to not only the administration but also the approach in the resident and the local society named NPO on the creating environment by the aspect of an environmental governance. 2. Social Movements against Pollution at prewar days Initial movement against pollution cracked by the fishery person who received the damage of air pollution and water pollution, the farmer, and the local populace about. Those movements can be understood from a direct protest against the factory and the petition to the assembly. The adverse effect on the occupation and life worked out an environmental movement. It was a resident organization that became organizing basic composed within an old town and village before amalgamating with this trader organization and Kawasaki City such as the fishermen's unions and a narrower, more spatial range. The negotiation was continued rather than becoming the issue of the local politics over the correspondence how to stop the damage of pollution as the enterprise, the administration, and the resident repeated. 3. Social movements against pollution at high economic growth period Movement against pollution at the high economic growth period progresses mainly the damage measures of air pollution. The petrochemical complex also was completed, and the contaminant such as SOx poured down over the residence ground in the Kawasaki seaside part. It is decided that local populace's movement against pollution becomes active in about 1970 years though the generation of the environmental pollution issue was pointed out with the revival of industry. The data of air pollution is observed in the Kawasaki city, and the law related to the pollution such as countries is maintained. Thus, the auto control to the pollution patient measures and the factory worked in a considerably advanced by health hazard in the Kawasaki seaside part place. The neighborhood protest movement to which pollution was opposite was active in nationwide various places. Movement against pollution of Kawasaki for the high economic growth period is with the pollution patient according to the aid agency. It did not necessarily come in succession with the local populace at prewar days, and many of plaintiffs in the Kawasaki pollution trial brought a case back were people who had migrated to Kawasaki after postwar days had come. Moreover, the environmental pollution issue became an issue, and it insisted on the antipollution policy from a political party base in the mayoral election and the election of the assembly member of the city council occasionally. 4. Approach for environmental regeneration The pollution litigation of continued Kawasaki was settled for about 20 years by deciding the plaintiff resident winning the case that almost admitted the pollution responsibility of the enterprise and the care and custody to the administration. The discussion as the problem afterwards is how to execute the environmental regeneration in the Kawasaki seaside part. The hand that doesn't exist variously appears and it is involved in the approach on the environmental regeneration. The plaintiff support organization and the researcher of the pollution litigation form the society of the environmental regeneration, and the old and new resident and administrative staff NPO groups also are participating. The former fishery person who withdrew from the fishery by the fishing rights abandonment at the high economic growth period also has been cooperating in the history study and the environmental regeneration in the seaside part. Various boundary movements in the Kawasaki seaside part starts concentrating on the environmental regeneration.

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Most of subsistence which had been practiced on forest has been eliminated in Japan, based on cognition that timber is the only major resource of forest. This study reveals that a minor subsistence of forest may play a significant role for local society, and examines the resource supply system which sustains the subsistence. As an example of subsistence, this study focuses on the gathering activities of wild edible plants and mushrooms. This subsistence plays an important role for sustaining culture and communication of local society rather than commercial benefit. And the resources of this subsistence are supplied as a result of vegetation diversity and succession impacted by other subsistence. In order to make a good relationship between human and forest, it is needed to understand the resource supply system which is sustained by organic linkage of multiple subsistence activities, and to recognize the significance of the non-commercial value of forest resources.

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The 2008 Iwate-Miyagi Nairiku Earthquake occurred the area where any intensive investigations on active faults had not yet been conducted, and thus no active faults had been identified to be existing. It was essential to examine whether no active faults actually exist in the area as the fundamental basis for discussion on the cause of the earthquake. We conducted aerial photograph interpretation using large-scale photos taken both in 1976 and just after the earthquake, as well as a field survey to identify surface ruptures. Then we found that some probable deformed landforms due to active faulting were sporadically spread along the Koinooka river in Genbi-cho, Ichinoseki city, and that surface ruptures appeared coincidently with such deformed landforms. Additionally, we excavated trenches across the earthquake fault, and clarified that the fault had been repeating activations several times after the deposition of the lower terrace sediment. Therefore, it suggests that an active fault was located in this area, and the earthquake was strongly related to this newly found active fault.

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Most of Japanese forests are composed by secondary forest and artificial forest, therefore it is important to clear the relationship between vegetation change and human activities. Especially in the last 100 years, that relationship has changed drastically. In previous studies, they cleared the change of Japanese mountainous villages in deciduous forest area. On the other hand, in evergreen forest area, there are few studies about vegetation change and relations with human behaviors. It is need that to clear the vegetation change in evergreen forest area during the last 100 years. My study area is the Kuzukayama mountainous area in the central part of Mie prefecture. In this area, evergreen trees are dominant vegetation. I use some old geographical information for reconstructing past vegetation change. To be concrete, I utilized topographical maps, vegetation maps and aerial photos. From those information and fieldwork, broadleaf forest is classified into three types in the study area. The first is composed by deciduous trees. The second is mixed forest composed by deciduous and evergreen trees. The last is composed by evergreen trees. In natural, vegetation changes from deciduous forest to evergreen forest. However evergreen forest grows near the villages. On the other hand, mixed forest grows on and around mountaintop that distance from villages is further than that of evergreen forest. From referring to sequential geographical information, the deciduous forest had been grassland before 1960s or planted pine trees until 1990s. The mixed forest has maintained as broadleaf forest at least for more than 100 years. And the evergreen forest had been mixed forest composed by broadleaf and pine trees and used for producing charcoal until 1950s. From these results, human activities had effected on vegetation change in this area. In general, we tend to think evergreen forest is natural condition than mixed or deciduous forest. In fact, however, the evergreen forest has stronger effect than that of the mixed forest by charcoal production. And then, after 1960s, some charcoal forests changed to artificial timber forests, other forests were left. The change of the social background has influenced vegetation change.

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