The promotion of local initiatives is vitally important for the establishment of a “sound material-cycle society” which is advocated by the enactment of “the Basic Law for the Establishment of a Sound Material-Cycle Society” in 2000. A variety of community-based actions are taken by the initiatives of national government, prefectures, municipalities, citizens, enterprises and NGOs. Among others, municipalities are taking a central role either as a promoter or a coordinator of joint activities conducted by different stakeholders. This paper briefly reviews the concept of a sound material-cycles society and discusses the role of communities to achieve 3R (reduce, reuse, and recycle) of wastes. Then it takes up some examples of resource recycling and other local actions taken by local governments and citizens in various communities in Japan, and discusses challenges for enhancing local actions for the sustainable use of resources.

A Sustainable Zone (SZ) is an indicator that helps identify areas in which the local production of renewable energy and foods exceeds the local consumption of these. The establishment of SZs is likely to usher in a potentially de-centralized society that will depend on de-centralized resources such as renewable energy or recycled resources. Last year, the Research Center on Public Affairs (ReCPA) at the Chiba University launched the SZ project in collaboration with the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies (ISEP). As a first step, in Japan, the formation of an energy sustainable zone (with some limitations) was calculated for the month of July. In this article, we will explain the rationale for this concept and demonstrate the method of calculation.

Today, it is no longer possible to build cities based on the urban model of a continuously expanding city. Cities must be planned in a way that promotes a further medium-term decrease in population figures; moreover, the structures of cities can be generated differently. The IBA ”Urban Redevelopment” 2010 in Germany is an experiment conducted in order to display new development patterns for cities in Japan. The transformation ”from a shrinking city to a lean city” suggests to us a method to achieve the rebirth of the urban environment.

In Chikugo Plain, there are many creeks called Hori which was constructed in medieval era. A creek can be interpreted as the common pool resource which is defined as rivalrous consumption and non-excludability or open access. What happens in open access common pool resource? Open access is the case in which we might witness a 'tragedy of the commons'. Since everyone has the rights to the resources, scarcity value of them is ignored. We, however, have many examples of self-governing common pool resources in which people work as a collective unit and respect the scarcity value of the resource. These groups succeed in allocating resources properly when they establish common property rights that include sharing rules, exclusion principles, enforcement and punishment schemes.

To reconstruct many roles of creeks, Aqua-Ring Committee whose members are dwelling in Shimoshirakaki district, started to work on various important issues concerned with environmental problems since 2002. The very important thing to save Hori is to establish self-governing scheme without any help of central or local governments. The author, one of the members of the Committee, introduces the characteristics of creeks and activities of the Committee, then proposes to make the spontaneous rule originating within the community.

One of the most important common policies the world over is the creation of a sustainable society. This type of society should be formed not only from a global perspective but also from a local one. In this context, it is crucial to develop the methodology of consensus building among stakeholders. For this purpose, it is necessary to explain the manner in which to organize and manage a meeting-place for dialogues. This paper focuses on these issues and discusses a recent example of consensus building that took place during a research project conducted in Yakushima Island, Japan. The following implications were obtained on the basis of the case study and discussions: (1) It is necessary to arrange two types of dialogues-forums and arenas-in order to accomplish social consensus building. (2) At the stage of setting the dialogue, participatory analysis is an effective tool that aids not only in the identification of multi-stakeholders but also in the comprehension of other perspectives such as the interests and values of the stakeholders. (3) In the operational stage of the dialogue, it is important to conduct conferences on the latest methods that have been implemented in several advanced, foreign countries; these should be examined in order to clarify the possibility of their application to our society.

Since the 1950s, two major political policies have addressed urban development issues.

These are the dispersion policy and the concentration policy regarding business functions in the city center of Tokyo. The 1950s was a period of economic growth. The concentration of business functions in the core city of Tokyo could have triggered economic growth in Japan. However, it could also have resulted in various types of urban problems related to traffic, environment, and housing dimensions. The two policies mentioned above play a vital role in improving urban conditions. Currently, there are a considerable number of ongoing projects being undertaken in Tokyo; these two urban policies reflect the process of area redevelopment. This paper explains the process of integrating these two policies.

It also emphasizes the importance of partnerships between the public and private sectors.