Transnational Japan in the Global Environmental Movement

Abstract

What motivates people to become involved in issues beyond national borders and how are activists changed and movements transformed by reaching out to others a world away? Transnational Japan in the Global Environmental Movement addresses these questions through the lens of the contemporary Japanese environmental movement. Spanning from the era of industrial pollution in the 1960s to the recent rise of movements addressing global environmental problems, the book shows how Japanese activists influenced approaches to environmentalism in the Asia-Pacific, North America, and Europe, as well as at landmark United Nations conferences in 1972 and 1992. The book argues that the trauma of industrial pollution in Japan produced a potent “environmental injustice paradigm” which fueled domestic protest and motivated some Japanese groups’ to go abroad. From the 1960s onwards these Japanese activists organized diverse movements addressing industrial pollution, radioactive waste disposal, rainforest destruction, and climate change. In all cases Japanese groups advocated for the environmental and human rights of people in marginalized communities and nations. Transnational involvement also profoundly challenged Japanese groups’ understanding of and approach to activism, undermining deeply engrained notions of victimhood and nurturing a more self-reflexive and multidimensional approach to environmental problems and social activism.