The series of special feature articles presented in this journal, including this paper, were written to follow up topics insufficiently discussed at the symposium entitled “Where Environmental Sociology and “Social Movement" Research Intersect: Current themes in environmental movement research" which took place at the 56th conference of the Japanese Association of Environmental Sociology. This paper acts as an overview and attempts to answer the questions, “What should be the focus of environmental movement research today?" and “What is it that only environmental movement research can accomplish?"

First, the paper highlights two perspectives of environmental sociology : the sociological study of environmental issues, and the study of the interaction between “environment and society". Second, the paper demonstrates how environmental studies were developed with these two perspectives in mind, to explain the characteristics and meaning of environmental movements and to examine the advantages and disadvantages of environmental movement research.

The paper draws four tentative conclusions: first, problem construction in environmental issues is more challenging than in other issues. With the framing of “environmental justice", however, this difficulty can be overcome. Second, practicability in environmental movement research could make its position in contrast to social movement research much clearer. Third, the uncertainty of nature can be a significant issue in the case of “human-nature" type environmental movements. Fourth, the perspective of adaptive governance can strengthen environmental movement study.

The “ecology movement", one of several “new social movements" to emerge at the end of the 1960s, radically criticized the petro-nuclear dependence of industrial societies for being intrinsically contradictory to the well being of eco-systems. However, in the process of putting the ecology movement into practice through institutionalization and policy-making, the ecology movement has shifted from espousing utopia-oriented principles to adopting a compromise-making stance disposed towards the exertion of substantial political influence. Furthermore, due to the advancement of environmental management systematization in the 1990s and the globalization of the world economy in the 2000s and thereafter, even the raison d'etre of environmental movements has come into question. In this context, the expansion of environmental justice movements on a global scale could trigger the de-institutionalization of the environmental movement. While the original environmental justice movement was launched in the United States as an anti-environmental racism movement, the recent rise of a “new environmental justice movement" addresses the issue of globally expanded disproportionate distribution of environmental burdens among the disadvantaged within the context of neo-liberalist economies.

This paper describes previous research and practices by which the author attempted to help create sustainable communities based on nearby nature. It mainly draws on ideas and action taken towards establishing good environmental governance in suburban ‘satoyama' A satoyama, a secondary natural environment found between mountain foothills and flat arable land, needs to be managed in order to maintain its ecosystem so that it is suitable for human use.

During the 1990s, the age of the environment and citizens, many people participated in voluntary activities in order to conserve the satoyama landscape. The movement was expected to reutilize remaining natural and cultural resources in satoyama through civic cooperation leading to the creation of new modern commons. However, since the 2000s, the power of civil activities has been absorbed by neo-liberal institutional reform in the shape of public-private partnerships. After the 2011 Japan earthquake, tsunami and Fukushima nuclear disaster, some people started their own businesses, using resources and spaces in suburban satoyama and began to provide new ecosystem services to the public. In effect, they have attempted to create an autonomous and alternative way of life. It is assumed that an ideal society can be planned ahead of this trend, and social and environmental activities are being carried out to this end

Japanese environmental sociologists tend to seek solutions to environmental problems based on regional social reality. This line of action is adaptable in the Heisei era, when the importance of governance has increased, and the research the author has been engaged in takes the same approach.

In order to consider the contact point between environmental sociology and social movement research, this paper examines the difference between environmental movement research based on mobilization theories employed in environmental sociology and social movement studies that are redrawing the “hostility line” not yet apparent in civil society, and aiming to make more explicit the concerns of environmental protestors. Moreover, based on the criticism of environmental movement research carried out by sociologists, the position of environmental sociology as public sociology is investigated to determine the direction that environmental movement research should take to best produce practical solutions. In addition, the “norm”, the consensus among sociologists as to what is beneficial for the environment, is considered employing the argument of environmental justice, and the possibility of environmental movement research, which educes practical knowledge is explored. Finally, the relationshipbetween the environmental justice of environmental movements (community power movements) and the “outcomes” of community power movements is examined. In this regard, an example of research that provides practical knowledge relating to a renewable energy enterprise, which contributes to both the local area and the community power movement is presented.

This paper considers environmental movement research issues from the point of view of social movement research. First, it aims to clarify the relationship between environmental so-ciology and social movement research. Then it distinguishes interpretative research and ex-planatory research along the methodological classification presented in Section 2. The former is classified into interpretation of macro social significance, interpretation about meaning for participants and interpretation of concepts and categories, and the latter into explanation of social movement organization, explanation about movement characteristics and about action. In addition, the paper highlights the points that each study area emphasizes, and discusses the diversification of movements, and the positionality of research. In the third section, it first considers middle-term Touraine theory as a representative example of interpretative movement research. And the paper draws attention to the issues with its application to environmental movement research: (1) consciousness as interpretation theory, (2) understanding of the theory (concept and historical hypothesis, verification), and (3) validity of the theory (relativization, late theory) . In Section 4, the paper discusses mobilization theory, which is in the mainstream of explanatory movement research. Then, it sets forth the issues relating to its application to environmental movement research: (1) consciousness as explanatory theory, (2) identification based on definition and hypothesis centered on organization, and (3) falsifiability of hypothesis. Furthermore, the paper discusses the features of environmental sociology (environmentalmovement research) at the description phase (descriptions including nature and materials) which can influence social movement research. Finally, it makes a brief reference to “social environment theory" at the level of contact between society and nature.

Volume 20 of the academic Journal of Environmental Sociology, 2014, (Kankyō Shakaigaku Kenkyu) features the theme “Breakthroughs in Environmental Sociology". Kanji Ikeda, one of the contributers, raises the concern that “environmental sociology generally seems to make only a small practical contribution to environmental policy making," and proposes some measures for “breakthrough" bearing in mind the dangers of engaging in the three discourses of “globalization", “sustainability" and “resilience" all of which can be abused as tools of governance. Among other articles, Mayumi Fukunaga, arguing that the “sustainability" discourse in particular should not be manipulated as a tool of governance, draws attention to Nobuko Iijima's “victim movement theory" and explains the importance of adopting the “yori-soi" research method embeded in “life environmentalism" proposed by Torigoe and Kada et al. as well as assuming Iijima's stance of “environmental justice".

This paper examines the significance of the “mottainai" policy that appealed to the electorate in the Shiga Prefecture Governor's 2006 election campaign, and also discusses the following factors that provide the background context to the campaign : the establishment of “life environmentalism" in the 1980s, the paradigm change which ushered in local resident participation (as concerned parties) in the building of the Lake Biwa Museum and residents participating in the Yodogawa basin wetland conservation policy-making committee. In addition the paper analyzes, the two-term Governor's environmental policy spanning eight years that involved, (1) basin flood control non-reliant on dams, (2) the restoration of the multifunctional aquatic cradle-of-life nature of rice paddies, (3) the restoration of the multi-functional role of forests and particularly that of huge trees (and their conservation) , (4) the awareness of the cultural value of Lake Biwa as part of Japan's heritage, and (5) the introduction of a “no nuclear power" policy to avoid radioactive contamination of Lake Biwa, and finally considers how to bring about environmental justice for a better future.

This paper attempts to explain why people continue to work in the fields in the same regular cycle after the Fukushima nuclear accident as they did prior to it, even though the accident has rendered the continuation of agriculture infeasible, and examines the social significance of such activities. The farmers in the village investigated in this paper were forced to cease ad infinitum agricultural production owing to the land being contaminated by the accident; however, most still continue to maintain their land even though there is no prospect of a harvest.

The paper focuses on the fact that the farmers carry out maintenance only during the peak-farming season. The mechanism behind this continual maintenance of the land following the same regular cycle as before the accident is their shared understanding of the importance of taking part in such community activities in order to continue living in the village ; by joining in a regular work cycle with other community members, they can avoid being shamed in interpersonal village relationships and can be recognized as contributing village members.

In other words, joining in this activity allows the farmers to “become important participants" in their own village, which is no easy task in a village that has been transformed from a “place" into a simple “space" because of the nuclear accident. Joining in a regular, village-related cycle of working in the fields gives the farmers a strong self-awareness that they are local and “important participants" in the face of possible social embarrassment and nuclear waste destruction. This regular work cycle, therefore, has become a shared social behavior, in which farmers engage for mutual recognition. Consequently, the social significance of “being one of the locals" in the village is found in the activities in which the local people engage.

Smallholder agricultural expansion has been causing rapid forest depletion in many developing countries such as Sri Lanka. Reducing the dependence of small farmers on land-intensive crops and diversifying their livelihoods toward high-value labor-intensive crops is acknowledged as a sustainable measure to impede deforestation. However, cost and availability of external labor can act as factors inhibiting this transformation. As a strategy to overcome this limitation, the feasibility of reciprocal labor in smallholder commercial farming can be explored. Along this line of thinking, we examine a reciprocal labor institution that structures labor transactions in relation to the labor-intensive cash cropping of chili within a rural Sri Lankan community. It was observed that the salient features of this labor exchange institution, such as “individual-individual" reciprocity, operational autonomy, and gender neutrality, have allowed it to continue to survive in a commercial context of smallholder farming. It was also observed that the high profitability of chili has reduced the dependence on land-intensive crops for households in the aforementioned community.

Fifteen years have passed since the Ma'Daerah Sea Turtle Sanctuary launched the first community-based conservation project in Peninsular Malaysia. The goal of the project was to raise awareness amongst local inhabitants, especially fishermen, through environmental education programmes and dialogue sessions within the community. A community group was expected to serve as a powerful platform for these programmes. Unfortunately, despite such expectations, the project is currently inactive, partially because of the withdrawal of a significant number of fishermen. According to the organizer of the project, WWF Malaysia, the inactive status stems from the “attitude" of the local fishermen.

This belief reveals a deep-seated prejudice against fishermen. In Malaysia, small-scale, traditional fishermen have been accused of being the culprits behind the decline of the endangered reptiles. The widely heard argument is that fishermen adhere to the use of harmful fishing techniques and continue to consume turtle eggs mainly because of a lack of adequate education and poverty-level incomes. Awareness raising, including the community-based programmes in the Ma'Daerah Sea Turtle Sanctuary, has been deemed the main method of tackling this problem.

However, this paper casts a sceptical view on this discourse. Based on semi-structured interviews and questionnaire surveys conducted in the fishing villages around the project site, the study unearthed the impending concerns that fishermen themselves have about degraded fishery grounds that underpin their positive perception toward proper management of marine ecosystems. In line with this finding, the paper claims that the inactive status of the existing conservation programmes does not stem from the “bad attitude" of “ignorant" fishermen, but from the failure to properly recognise the fishermen's own concerns about degraded fishery grounds. Furthermore, the paper argues the existing narrative, that denounces small-scale, traditional fishermen, emerged in the initial stage of conservation strategy building.. Whilst the country promoted modernisation of the fishery sector and coastal development, government agencies dealt with traditional fisheries as an unproductive remnant of the past. Consequently, the existing regulations to protect sea turtles only impose restrictions on this politically powerless sector. In tandem with this policy, prejudice against coastal fishermen, which prevails amongst the general public has eventually blurred the public's perception whilst the fishermen's own perception has been confined to what Karl Polanyi called a “tacit dimension". The paper envisions a broader dissemination of the fishermen's currently confined perception and depiction of their sincere concern for sustainability.

This paper examines the social change brought about by the development of renewable energy (RE) in Akita Prefecture following the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident. Before the Fukushima accident, many RE researchers argued that the introduction of RE would bring about the diffusion of small-scale independent local systems led by local communities (Community Power). Since the accident, Akita Prefecture, one of Japan's richest regions in RE resources, has witnessed a considerable growth in RE businesses and a huge expansion of RE industrialization. However, it is an economic and industrial trend that has created new RE businesses without promoting social transformations toward a sustainable society. It was also discerned that businesses conducted solely by external companies have declined whilst businesses in which local companies participate have increased compared with the situation before the accident. These changes suggest (i) the influence of the two eminent citizen's movements related to RE (The Kingdom of Wind Project and The Citizen-Funded Wind Power Plant) was important, (ii) local banks were very active in financing new wind power businesses,something that was not common before the enforcement of a Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) policy, and (iii) policies adopted by local governments to urge local companies to participate in new wind power projects were effective. Interestingly, the case of a new wind power business owned and managed by local companies seems to display a similar type of business structure to those of the Community Power category. Based on research findings, it is argued that RE industrialization and Community Power should not be regarded as a dichotomic confrontation but as “components" of the strategies and negotiations between stakeholders of RE businesses which reveal a complex and ever-changing nature within the different social contexts of RE businesses.

Following the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Accident in 2011, the JapaneseGovernment established the Nuclear Damage Compensation Facilitation Corporation (NDF). As a consequence, money would be lent from the government to Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) through the NDF ensuring TEPCO would not go bankrupt because of compensation payments. Furthermore, it was stipulated that other electricity companies, which possessed nuclear power plants, would have to pay the NDF to help TEPCO with compensation claims.

In 2016, the Japanese government decided that these large electricity companies could collect money for the NDF by charging other electricity companies for the use of main power lines. This meant many smaller companies, that had recently entered the electricity market as a result of liberalization, as well as consumers, who did not want to pay for the nuclear power plants of big electricity companies and had chosen small green energy companies, would have to pay for TEPCO's compensation. Not surprisingly, there was a lot of criticism from citizen groups and environmental movements.

In this paper, the decision-making process of the Japanese government and the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan (LDP) is examined from the viewpoint of deliberation in the public sphere. Firstly, the discussion within a working group of a governmental committee is considered. The majority in the working group consisted of members who were not opposed to government policy, and the working practice of the committee was mainly to listen to opinions from all members once. As a result, the policy of collecting money for the NDF through the charge for main power lines was approved without much difficulty. Secondly, the process and the result of discussion within the LDP are examined. The same kind of criticism as that received from citizen groups and environmental movements manifested itself in the discussion process of the LDP committee, and at the last, the chairman of the committee decided to change the way funds were to be collected for the NDF. It was determined that large electricity companies, which have main power lines and nuclear power plants, should rationalize the way they utilize the main power lines and that they could pass on the money saved through rationalization to the NDF. This meant that a rise in electricity charges to be imposed on small companies was prevented.

This policy change was based not on the result of discussion itself, but rather on the populist judgment of the chairman politician. Nevertheless it was also a way in which the public sphere could have an influence on the political process. Environmental sociologists should appreciate the potential of the populist power of the public sphere.

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the rationale behind a local community's decision to spend a large amount of public money in order to transfer the land ownership of a beach, which was not being used efficiently, to a community association.

The case study in question involves a raised coral reef island in the Yaeyama archipelago of Okinawa. The beach, which is composed of coastal forest, sandy beach, and reef lagoon, has, in the past, provided substantial resources in the form of a local commons for public use. However, after 1955, the traditional usage of the beach fell into decline. As a result, the commons itself eventually became “an owner unknown” stretch of land.

This paper attempts to elucidate the significance of changing the ownership of commons, which have a lower usufruct, from the perspective of resource utilization. The paper also highlights the significance of local people working together to guarantee their community's “sustainable life”, keeping their lives and environment safe from harmful changes, which is an important concern when conducting local commons research projects.