Litigation has played a major role in the process of resolving pollution problems. How pollution lawsuits are structured, including the defendant and the content of the claims, influences the subsequent resolution process. Therefore, the process of formulating a complaint, which determines these factors, is an important research topic. However, research on pollution lawsuits and the resolution process of pollution problems has not focused on the process of considering a complaint before it is filed.

In this paper, we use primary sources to elucidate the process of formulating complaints of pollution lawsuits, based on our case study of the Nishiyodogawa Lawsuit filed by air pollution victims in Osaka City in 1978. Then, we make clear that the origins of today’s movement for the regeneration of pollution-devastated areas and community development can be found in the preparation process of the Nishiyodogawa Lawsuit.

We conducted a questionnaire survey in Japan and Germany to identify the determinants and characteristics of the level of support for a decarbonized society in Japan and to explore how climate communication can help resolve the psychological climate paradox in Japan.

The results of the analysis showed that people in Japan tend to imagine familiar measures that involve endurance as climate change measures, and that the level of practice of daily measures, support for policies, and support for a decarbonized society is considerably higher in Germany than in Japan as a whole, but the level of practice of initiatives such as setting lower heating temperatures is higher in Japan. The strongest influence on the level of support for a decarbonized society was not a sense of crisis, responsibility, or financial burden, but rather the extent to which people see a decarbonized society as feasible and have a vision for it.

The perception that “a decarbonized society is unrealistic” in Japan may be a psychological barrier that reduces the level of support for a decarbonized society. Therefore, rather than communicating about the climate change crisis and encouraging environmentally conscious behavior at the individual level, it is important to communicate with the aim of creating a vision for a decarbonized society that is perceived as feasible. This includes communication in a broader sense, such as the development of opportunities for participation in the creation of a decarbonized society and the realization of buildings and neighborhoods that enable people to envision a decarbonized society.