This study examined how various low-carbon measures in urban districts can reduce CO₂ emissions. Developing low-carbon cities requires taking into consideration various local conditions, including land use, building use, and climate. We developed a method to evaluate CO₂ reduction potential by using an urban canopy and an air-conditioning load calculation model. We applied our method to the city of Kawasaki to evaluate various low-carbon measures, such as highly reflective paints, rooftop greening, water-retentive pavement, etc. The results revealed that the introduction of solar insolation cover films would have the greatest effect. We estimate that the low-carbon measures evaluated in this study could decrease CO₂ emissions in Kawasaki by a total of about 120,000 t-CO₂.

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Decrease of usage of mercury and of the emission of mercury are urgent requirement for our health on a global scale. In Indonesia, however, artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) is actively operated, and a considerable amount of mercury is consumed in the process. In Poboya area of Palu City, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, more than 760 of ASGM are in operation. In the ASGM plants in Poboya, about 180 tons of mercury is estimated to be consumed to produce gold amalgam every year, leading to yield 45kg of purified gold. In the gold purification process, gaseous mercury is emitted into the atmosphere without treatment. The current research is to measure the space distribution of the mercury concentration around the gold mining plant in Poboya.
Extremely high concentration of mercury exceeding WHO guideline of 1000ng/m³ was observed in Poboya. In addition, high concentration of mercury as high as 70ng/m³ observed at the sampling point 8km apart from the center of Poboya indicated that the gaseous mercury could have prevailed over Palu City and threatened health of the residents.

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This study constructed structural equation models (SEM) to show the structures of diffusion of green supply chain management (GSCM) and its drivers into Japanese and Chinese enterprises. We conducted questionnaire surveys of Japanese enterprises (236 responses) and Chinese enterprises (347 responses). Exploratory factor analysis and covariance structure analysis (CSA) were used to analyze the data. The results suggested that 1) in Japanese enterprises, “compliance with domestic regulations” and “stakeholder demands and foreign rules” are major driving forces; strict “domestic regulations” promoted “establishing in-house institutions”, whereas “compliance with domestic regulations” was not linked to business profit; and “stakeholder demands” rather than regulations promoted “collaboration with suppliers”, “design for environment” and CSR; 2) in Chinese companies, “domestic regulations”, which was influenced by “foreign rules”, and “stakeholder demands” improved “establishing in-house institutions” and environmental practices that were directly linked to business profit including “resource recovery” and “design for environment”; Chinese enterprises have promoted internal practices, whereas they have not promoted “collaboration with customers and suppliers”.

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This study analyzed the relationship between infrastructure investment and water use and aqueous environments. First, we collected data on water use and pollutant discharge in each industry and constructed an input–output table that was used to analyze the influence of infrastructure construction on water resources and aqueous environments. Then, the influence of the infrastructure investment on water resources was evaluated using indicators, Such as the amount of water use and the pollutant discharge of chemical oxygen demand(COD) and ammonia(NH₄). According to our analysis, the domestic product resulting from infrastructure investment is as large as urban household consumption and export demand, and has become a main force of economic development in China. In the agricultural sector, both the amount of water use and water pollutant discharge induced by infrastructure investment far exceeded that by any other industry. In addition, the water use induced by infrastructure investment in the steel-smelting sector and electricity and hot water production and supply sector was also high. The COD discharge by the paper and paper products sector was very high. The infrastructure investment induced a large discharge of NH₄ in the chemicals sector, which includes chemical fertilizers. Therefore, increasing water use efficiency and decreasing water pollutant discharge in key sectors, such as agriculture and paper and paper products, will be increasingly important in the future.

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Since the late 1970s the world′s developed and developing states have been facing the challenge of introducing environmental science topics into school curriculums. Presently many countries teach the topics as a part or straightly related to the course “Life Science”. Therefore, the research unifies these fields in its study of national standards for grades 7-12. It has been conducted to investigate if in Japan or Ukraine the approach is closer to recent tendencies of selected developed countries and what themes might be proposed for the introduction into curriculums or sources of lifelong learning. Japan and Ukraine were chosen for the comparison as recently Japanese science education has been criticized as superficial and is expecting a reform in 2011, while the Soviet model (Russian, Ukrainian, etc.) has been recognized as developed for a few decades^1∼3).
The instructional time and statistic figures of prescribed, studied topics, and characteristics of the teaching process in life and environmental science of two schools were extracted, compared and analysed. Necessary for learning curriculums were arranged as a data base and studied. Totally in grades 7-12 Japanese students are prescribed to learn 34-39 topics (Ukrainian students - 68) from 74, while instructional time is 2-4.5 times more in Ukraine.
The research did not intend to create a “perfect curriculum”, but identify a belief, that a certain range of topics is forming an essential core of science education. If it is insufficient, the educational system will affect economy, science (especially the ability of a country′s specialists to compete with foreigners) and social issues, including environmental protection for what knowledge in life science is necessary.

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Environmental leaders who have deep knowledge on global environmental issues such as global warming, natural resources and energy crisis, population issues, in addition to accurate knowledge of environmental risk management and pollution prevention and waste management and recycling, “Environmental Policy”, “Environmental Technology”, “Environmental Management strategy” are needed in the companies and the world. Global environmental issues are getting more complex, and this kind of Environmental leaders continues to be needed in the near future. The graduate school of environmental studies, Tohoku University developed new education system for environmental leader who can create business and technological solutions or environmental strategic policy with such deep knowledge for sustainability.
Five years have passed since this graduate school started the new course called SEMSaT (Strategic Environmental Management and Sustainable Technology Solutions) for environmental leader education, and over 50 students from the companies graduated. In this study, the need for the learning system after graduation in the society, the difficulties in educating them at only 1 University, the need for updating the curriculum constantly, and the need for further theoretical research on methodology of creating new business solutions, are suggested.

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This research was conducted to categorize municipalities according to CO₂ emission characteristics and clarify their relationship with regional characteristics, and furthermore, to discuss the regional characteristic factors defining CO₂ emission characteristics using a quantity theory type I analysis. As a result, the following were clarified. 1) As for the CO₂ emission amount per capita in 2007, in urban municipalities that have the characteristics of higher population density and larger population size, the emission amount in the business sector was larger, and however, in the household sector, the transportation sector and the total of all sectors, it tended to be smaller. And, while it tended to be larger in the household sector and transportation sectors in cold regions, no significant trend was observed in the manufacturing sector. 2) As a result of categorizing municipalities into fourteen divisions using a modified Weber′s method, many municipalities were categorized into three types of four sectors: average type, manufacturing and transportation compound type, and manufacturing-specific type. The CO₂ emission amount per capita was larger in the manufacturing-specific type and business specific type, and it was smallest in the household and business compound type. Furthermore, from the increases and decreases during 1990-2007, it decreased in seven types including four sectors average type, and increased in five types including manufacturing and business. These facts imply that the consolidation of business activities had proceeded and that the business activities became more concentrated in municipalities in which CO₂ emission was larger, while it decreased in other municipalities. 3) Furthermore, in order to clarify by what regional characteristics the CO₂ emission characteristics are defined, the quantity theory type I analysis was conducted in each sector, thus, putting CO₂ emission amount per capita in 2007 as an objective variable and seven regional characteristics as explanatory variables. As a result, it was clarified that the regional characteristics most affected the household sector, and that they significantly affected other sectors as well. Specifically, they strongly affect the income per capita in the business sector, the climate conditions in the household sector, the income per capita in the livelihood sector, and the population density ofin the habitable area in all sectors.

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This study investigates the feasibility of collecting donations from citizens to fund international environmental cooperation in their cities of residence in Japan. Although some Japanese cities have contributed to international cooperation, the restricted budget makes it difficult for them to continue cooperation. The donation of eco-points, which are money-like rewards for carrying out environmentally friendly activities, could help fund future international cooperation. Adult citizens of Kitakyushu City and Yokohama City were randomly chosen and surveyed. These two cities have been leading international environmental cooperation and have their individual eco-point programs. Attitudes toward eco-points donations for international cooperation varied across citizens. Those interested in problems of developing countries and those supporting their city′s future international cooperation favored donations. The elder citizens were also favored it. Those who had collected existing eco-points disregarded donations. On average, citizens prefer cash-back rather than donating eco-points and quitting eco-point programs that require large donations. Therefore, the collection of a smaller donation from each participant results in a larger sum. The estimated annual sum for Kitakyushu City, which has a population of 1.0 M, is between 1.00 M and 4.19 M yen, depending on the participation rates of citizens in the eco-point program.

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In common,“public” is not only static aspect but also understood as having implications and interaction dynamics.
In this paper, based on the awareness of the “public” , analyzing the case of local industry form succeeded by farmer-participation-type extension services integrated both of public and individual perspectives, liaison activities with local residents has shown.
In this case, the process of maintaining local industry formation of public administration by training farmers with public view maintenance as follows:
(1) To foster a collective leadership of farmers with the public awareness in order to maintain the local industry
(2) Rectify disparities in the region considering farmers' hierarchy progression
(3)Development of large-scale farmers based on dense training of leading farmer
(4)Strengthen support measures for regional revitalization focusing leader farmers
(5)Development of specialty products and a variety of employment opportunities
(6)Promotion of sixth industrialization by the regional coordination.
From these results, the public administration has to have the role of raising the scheme focused on the equality of all the traditional activities to regional collaboration, such as multilayered with an extension service involving the local residents and consumers, to maintain public.

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In this study, we investigated how elementary teachers, students and local community partnerships cooperate to create school biotopes. Our research was based on the results of a questionnaire that we sent to elementary school teachers in 2002 and 2008. The majority of the respondents believe that the purpose of biotopes is for learning about the natural ecosystem of region. Additionally, by 2008, teachers and students were using biotopes for mutual association and relaxation, a big change from 2002. Generally speaking these days, rural schools are more enjoying biotopes with a multi-purpose range of uses than urban schools. Biotope management systems come in three types which are known as: top-down, nature restoration and concept. The top-down type biotope is designed by city planners and elementary schools. The nature restoration type biotope concentrates on elementary schools to restore natural ecosystems of their region. The concept type biotope is a creation of elementary schools and local communities to learn the importance of protecting the natural ecosystem of their region. We want to stress the importance of the concept type which relies on partnering of schools and community leaders to continuously use biotopes as regional environmental resources. Community participation can solve many problems facing biotope management.

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The purpose of this study is to clarify the problems and propose policies for achieving community participation in municipal solid wastes reduction in Chofu city, Tokyo. I surveyed the state of community participation in each stage of municipal solid waste management, focusing on administrative measures and the efforts of residents and residents' associations and enterprises.
The major findings of this study are as follows:
(1) Among administrative measures, the enterprises at reduce and reuse stages are active in order to realize the large volume of municipal waste reduction in the early 2000′s.
(2) Though the efforts of residents and residents′ associations and enterprises are not so active at either reduce or reuse stage, there are many different ways of handling the recycle stage. Enterprises are active in “Urgent Waste Diet”, however, its concrete reduction target is not known so well.
(3) At both reduce and reuse stages, there are few administrative measures and limited efforts by residents and residents′ associations and enterprises. At the recycle stage, sorted collection and recycling of garbage are not positively promoted by administration, residents and residents′ associations and enterprises.
(4) Among the policies for community participation, I recommend information sharing, environmental education, holding of environmental events and encouraging the commitment of NPOs.

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Emissions trading scheme is widely applied for mitigation policy of CO₂ emissions. Recently, emissions trading are evaluated by many researches. In such studies, economic experiment is one of the effective analysis methods for policy analysis. In real emissions trading, participants are allowed to become seller and buyer of emission permits. In almost all of previous studies, subjects are either buyer or sellers, but not both. In this study, however, we evaluate effectiveness of double auction and uniform price auction which allow participants to become buyer and seller. The results of our research suggest that, overall the organized trading process outperforms in the uniform price auction.

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Compact city planning is obtaining significant attentions in many countries. It is expected that the planning contributes to inhibit urban sprawls as well as to mitigate carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions with compacting and restructuring cities′ functions. There is, however, no verification whether the planning indeed reduces CO₂ emissions. Hence, using Japanese municipal-level data, this paper examines effects of compact city planning on CO₂ emissions. Population density is applied as a proxy for extent of compact city. We use CO₂ emissions only from automobiles because size of city does not have influence on the emissions from stationary sources such as facilities. The estimation results show that the compact city planning considerably decreases per capita CO₂ emissions from automobiles. Therefore, this study concludes that the planning is helpful for constructing environmentally friendly cities.

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This study examines environmental awareness focusing on how people emphasis the Millennium Development Goals considering biodiversity conservation. We implement survey to obtain environmental awareness indices, economic indices, social and demographic and personality variables. Our result implies that the following factors have effects on environmental awareness, which are income, unemployment, age, sex, marriage, health, experience of shocking events, happiness, time discounting, anxiety and altruism.

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