Assessing the environmental and climate crisis in the Japanese context: Shigeto Tsuru revisited

Abstract

This paper examines the political economy of the environment in the era of climate crises. The guiding thread is Japanese political economy of the environment pioneer Shigeto Tsuru’s methodology. Specifically, the guiding threads are “the distinction and unification of the real-physical and value-institutional aspects” and “the socialization of flow.” The paper will consider contemporary features of environmental problems and the climate crisis in conjunction with examining the development of Japan’s political economy of the environment. Tsuru’s theory to Kenichi Miyamoto’s intermediate system theory and environmental damage theory will be explored alongside Japan’s decarbonization policy and problems of “carbon captive structure of political economy.”