Environmental conflicts arising from concerns of local residents and environmental protection groups pose a significant barrier to the further development of wind farms in Japan, as in other countries. There has been increasing discussion about countermeasures to address the concerns and ease conflicts. In order to design a smooth and adequate planning system of wind farm developments, this study aims to demonstrate factors that determine the success and failure of conflict resolution at the project stage. To do so, this study focuses on public participation at the project stage, and analyzes its function in light of the site-specific difficulties determined by the characteristics of the project. Through eight in-depth case studies, the results demonstrate that the projects with a high level of site-specific difficulties are much more likely to be unsuccessful regardless of the levels of public participation; therefore it indicates the limitation of practice to ease conflicts at the project stage. Barriers discovered to hinder developments include “designated areas regulated by the Natural Parks Act” and “the disclosed 10km grid habitat for Golden Eagle.” On the other hand, the projects with a low level of site-specific difficulties are more likely to be successful with a high level of public participation at the project stage.

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This paper aimed to clarify factors influencing environmental conflict occurrence during the planning stage for wind farm projects in Japan. After studying conflict occurrence situations and the main conflict issues for 155 large-scale projects across Japan, we focused on both physical and social factors as explanatory variables and applied a quantitative method using binary logistic regression analysis. The main findings were: (1) environmental conflicts had occurred in 59 projects as of May 2012 and the main issues could be classified as noise/infrasound, sediment- related disaster/hydrology, landscape, nature destruction and birds (esp. raptors); (2) turbine number and size were influential factors as structural aspects, while there was no significant association between proximity to turbines and conflict occurrence; (3) sites located within natural parks, national protection forests, sediment-related disaster hazardous areas and wildlife protection areas designated by relevant acts and ordinances showed higher conflict occurrence, and proximity to such areas could be influential as well; (4) habitats for Golden Eagle, Mountain Hawk Eagle, White-tailed Eagle and Steller's Sea Eagle significantly encouraged conflict; (5) in terms of social aspects at both the national and prefectural level, conflict occurrence was strongly associated with the existence of past conflict experiences and complaints about noise and/or infrasound generated by operating wind farms.

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