Official and Popular Approaches to Water Resources in Japan : The Failures of an Applied Geography

Abstract

In Japan from the institutional viewpoint, geography is firmly rooted in research institutes and in higher education. This fact does not however mean that geography is very influential in applied fields or that many geographers are engaged in jobs outside research and education, i.e, in business circles, regional and town planning and other public services. The source of the strong position of geography in academia consists mainly in its importance in school curriculum but not in the practices of geographers in applied fields (Takeuchi, 1984). After World War II, especially from the 1950s, with the rapid growth of the national economy, various kinds of environmental problems emerged and several new institutions for environmental studies have since been established. Among geographers who came armed with their man-environment paradigms and who always purported to be specialists in environmental studies, only a few have been appointed as researchers at these institutions. Environmentalist discussions carried on by many geographers were too metaphysical to be applied in environmental questions ; and for the analyses of environmental prob]ems more specialized techniques and knowledge than geographers' skills could provide were perhaps necessary. Two exceptional fields where specialists in geographical formation have been able to exercise their talents are studies of natural hazards and water resources management. Here I would like to present some considerations in the case of applied geography in the studies of water resources.