Japan is one of largest countries of the world that implements official development assistance (ODA). Large-scale plans and projects may have certain adverse effects on local residents. In order to prevent such impact, multilateral agencies including the World Bank improved their own guidelines for environmental and social consideration. The Japan Bank of International Cooperation (JBIC) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) also revised their guidelines in 2003 and 2004, respectively. Having merged with a part of JBIC in October 2008, the New JICA will be a comprehensive aid agency to implement the three aid schemes of technical cooperation, ODA loans, and grant aid. It is expected that the New JICA will appropriately consider environmental and social aspects for each project as a large-scale bilateral agency. After reviewing the safeguard policies of some multilateral agencies and the revised guidelines of JBIC, this paper describes the consultation process for revising the current guidelines of JICA as well as specific procedures for each project based on the activities of the advisory committee. In addition, several issues on environmental and social consideration with regard to Japanese international cooperation agencies are discussed.

The JICA Guidelines for Environmental and Social Considerations, launched in 2004, are one of the most important environmental policies for JICA. This paper aims at elucidating the advantages and disadvantages of the guidelines. These guidelines will be revised next year because JICA and JBIC (ODA loan section) merged into a new organization in October 2008. Moreover, the revision of both the environmental guidelines is an essential topic of discussion; this paper will contribute to the discussion of this issue.

The results of this paper suggest that, in general, the guidelines have worked well for about four years, the projects of grant aid scheme categorized as B are relatively not high performance, and the alternatives are also not adequately considered. These issues should be further discussed for creating more effective guidelines in the ongoing process.

This paper discusses the ESC (environmental and social considerations) of ODA projects, focusing on the environmental guidelines of the former JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) and JBIC (Japan Bank of International Cooperation). There is no doubt that these guidelines contributed to the sustainable development of developing countries. There remain, however, many challenges in the guidelines. Based on the working experiences of consultants engaging in the ESC study, the paper highlights the following relevant challenges of the guidelines: 1) basic principles to realize an ideal form of ESC, 2) clarification of the definition and procedures, and 3) the effective and efficient enforcement. Valuable insights acquired through a questionnaire survey administered to consultants with experience in the ESC study are also incorporated into the paper. This paper makes a variety of recommendations, including the establishment of an effective ESC system corresponding to the EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) systems of recipient countries, the clarification of the concept of strategic environmental assessment, the elaboration of a clear framework for involuntary resettlement, and the effective utilization of the ”Advisory Council of Environmental and Social Considerations Review.” The recommendations are expected to contribute to the ongoing discussions on the New JICA ESC guidelines.

The JICA/JBIC Guidelines for Environmental and Social Considerations play a considerable role in promoting environmental and social consideration at every stage of the ODA projects, from preparation, formation, appraisal, and decision making to monitoring. Despite positive outcomes, it is critical to learn from what has happened to the projects which had applied the guidelines and to take the results into revising the guidelines.

This report reviews the following two ODA projects: (1) The Construction of Second Mekong Bridge in Cambodia, for which JICA conducted a Development Study as well as a preliminary study to prepare it as a grant aid project; and (2) Integrated Water Resources and Flood Management Project for Semarang in Indonesia, for which JICA conducted a Development Study and JBIC provided Yen Loan Assistance of up to 16.3 billion yen in 2006.

The author has been studying the Comprehensive National Land Development Plan since the 1950s with particular emphasis on the basic key concepts of the plan that are directly related to national land. On the basis of this study's results, the author advocates a change in the concept of national land such that it involves greater focus on the “inter-regional exchange” scenario rather than being confined to regional boundaries. This is because the 21st century will be the era of global exchange, and full exploitation of resources in the target region will require national land development in order to ensure free and smooth exchange of people, cargo, information, and so on. A new regional development model aiming for “re/vitalization by exchange-oriented development” has originated from this concept.

The government has been preparing a new national land development plan-the National Land Sustainability Plan-that, according to the plan's interim report, will have a positive impact on the diversity of the natural and cultural characteristics of regions. Such efforts will lead us to a new concept of national land that will be meaningful and relevant to the developmental planning of Japan's national land and ensure its sustainable growth in the 21st century.

While there are many cases of urban area water supply systems in developed countries being operated by the public sector, there are also many different degrees of public sector control. These range from full ownership by the private sector as seen in England & Wales, to extensive private sector participation seen in France, and are due the needs in both countries for solving public financial problems and to comply with increasingly strict EU environmental regulations.

This paper describes the concept of the overall effectiveness of a number of water supply companies, from the standpoint of their ability to produce reliable drinking water at an acceptable price for the entire population that must be served. 1) This study focuses on developing a framework for evaluating the effectiveness of drinking water suppliers using the following five key factors:

•Efficiency (productive, dynamic, allocative)

•Service levels (drinking water quality, customer services)

•Legitimacy of regulatory process (political/legislative mandates, accountability, decision-making processes, decision-maker expertise, regulatory costs)

•Criteria for institutional structures intended to provide credible protection for private investors

•Global environmental impact 2) (enhancement of healthful water production and distribution, application of Integrated Water Resource Management practices, understanding of and planning for the effects of climate changes, and the minimization of greenhouse gas emissions)

If there is a lack of parking spaces, the delivery trucks have to wait before starting loading/unloading; hence, the delivery times increase if the trucks have to wait owing to a lack of parking spaces. Therefore, it is necessary to create parking spaces keeping in mind the factors of loading/unloading.

Furthermore, the Large-Scale Retail Store Location Law provides guidelines on determining the size of loading/unloading facilities.

However, this guideline supposes that the loading/unloading times and arrival times of the trucks are fixed. Hence, there is a concern about the consequences and delays caused by a shortage of parking spaces.

This study introduces a specific number of parking spaces in a Large-Scale Retail Store for loading/unloading so as to ensure that trucks do not have to wait for parking space. The study involves a simulation analysis and compares the result of this analysis and the guidelines provided by the Large-Scale Retail Store Location Law.

In 2005, the Comprehensive National Land Development Act was revised completely and became the National Land Sustainability Plan Act. This is a major switch in the national and regional planning history of Japan. This study examines this big switch from the viewpoint of the critiques of the act.

In this study, the critiques of the National Land Development Plan were compiled from the remarks of the Diet, political parties, newspapers, magazines, and the financial world. These were then analyzed and the following four points were clarified:

1. The main critiques that appeared after the 5th National Land Development Plan,

2. The people who argued against the plan and those who counter argued,

3. The background and the causes for the critiques,

4. The response of the planning authorities to the critiques.

This research aimed to examine the possibility of a support scheme for organizing a voluntary group for park management. The scheme is to recruit volunteers as members of the group, build an organizational structure and activity program, and also to promote the group as an independent organization. From the case study of Minaminoshizenjyuku in Hachiouji City, we recognized that a supporter has to build an organization that satisfies not only its members but also such stakeholders as local community groups or the local government. In order to transform the group into an independent organization, members should make the organizational structure more flexible and introduce various activities.

In Japan, project level EIAs have become a prevailing concept; however, environmental consideration at the policy/plan/program level is still difficult. A guideline for SEA has been introduced in April 2007, but there is little practical experience at the national level. In the U.S., by contrast, SEA systems exist at the federal level NEPA as programmatic EIAs, and also in some states as “mini-NEPAs.” In this study, a survey of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) was conducted, which involves a system called program EIR, considered equivalent to SEA. The characteristics of the institution were clarified by classifying the state level SEA systems, and comparing them to the Japanese local SEA system. As a result, the deep involvement of responsible agencies, the minimum public participation required, and tiering were identified as main characteristics. Subsequently, the effects of these characteristics were analyzed using the case study of a large-scale redevelopment project in Sacramento, California.

Regional vitalization has been an important policy subject for most local governments in recent years. Hence, a virtuous circle wherein people are attached to their areas of residence, participate in social activities, and form various organizations, such as community-based organizations and NPOs, is expected. In this paper, we discuss social participation in local activities from the viewpoint of social capital, and empirically analyze whether participation in local activities can become a motive for people to continue living in the area. As a result of analyzing the data of a national survey, we found that (1) the participation in local activities increases the willingness to continue living in the same region; (2) willingness differs in accordance with the organizations that people participate in, such as community-based activities, sports, hobbies and amusement activities, volunteering, NPOs, and civic activities; and (3) that participation frequency is high. Nevertheless, we found that (4) the influence of the participation in sports or hobbies, NPOs, or civic activities is not statistically significant.