The development of the Japanese legal system for public participation in land use and environmental matters

Abstract

This paper introduces the development of the Japanese legal system for public participation in land use and environmental matters. The promotion of public participation has been a common topic in Japan and in other countries, especially after the Rio Summit in 1992. However, the legal framework and its implementation are differentiated. While the guarantee of the right to participate in decision-making is a basic element in the European system, the Japanese system's primary characteristic has been that it is a voluntary-based approach without the guarantee of such a right. Traditionally, there have been many good practices for effective voluntary-based approaches in this field such as recycling and energy saving. Since 1990s, various original legal measures for public participation and collaboration have also been introduced in Japanese land use and environmental laws, which in many cases aim at collecting environmental information for the sake of making better decisions or promoting voluntary activities. However, such a system easily becomes dysfunctional, especially in conflict cases such as infrastructure improvement, because of the intense conflicts of interest. In order to settle such conflicts, a rights-based approach is indispensable for transparent and fair decision-making. The appropriate participation/collaboration models for Japanese society should simultaneously combine meeting global standards, the three pillars of the Aarhus Convention, as well as the preservation of the historical and original achievements that have arisen as a result of the leading environmental cases in Japan.