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ASIAN STUDIES CONFERENCE JAPAN
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Executive Committee |
Summer 2000 ASCJ Conference Details 18.
Individual Paper Session:
Politics in Japan Chair: M. William Steele, International Christian University Paper 1: Nakachi Kiyoshi, Meio University. "Recent Political
Movement on the U.S. Military Bases in Okinawa, Japan" Since the
rape incident of an elementary girl student by the three U.S. military service members in 1995, the presence of the U.S.
military bases has been a big
theme in Okinawa, Japan. The Japanese government has an obligation to offer military facilities to the U.S.A. under the
Japan-U.S. mutual defense
treaty. However, the Okinawan local government and most of the most of the Okinawan people have continued to campaign to remove
the bases from Okinawa. The
movement of anti-bases is getting stronger and stronger toady. The former reformative government and some
landowners denied the mutual
defense treaty and even rejected to rent their lands for the bases. On the other hand, it is fact that the Okinawan bases is
still a key stone of the
Pacific in the U.S. military strategy and cooperative defense policies between Japan and the U.S. Okinawa have questioned
why U.S. needs to maintain military bases after the reversion of Okinawa
and the end of the cold war.
The paper examines why Okinawans protest the presence of the U.S.
military bases and what, in recent political movements, Okinawans
expect from both Japanese and U.S. governments. Paper 2: Peter Cave, University of Hong Kong. "Individuality and Educational Reform in
Japan: A Guide for the Perplexed" This paper
examines the significance of the current educational reform drive in Japan.
It looks particularly
at the concept of "individuality" (kosei),
based on analysis of the reform debate, on the one hand, and school
ethnography on the other. Changes
to the post-war educational system have been proposed at least since the
1960s. In the 1980s, Prime
Minister Nakasone set up the Ad Hoc Committee on Education or Rinkyooshin
which succeeded in establishing a hegemonic rhetoric for the educational
agenda. The term "individuality" (kosei) has been particularly central in subsequent reform debates
and proposals. As far as
reformers allied with the government go, the advantages of this term lie
in its universal appeal and its vagueness. Almost everyone favours individuality" and its promotion, but there are very
varied opinions about what these things mean in practice. Some understand "individuality" in an elitist sense
that centres on the production of creative leaders; others see it in an
egalitarian sense, as enabling each child to realise her or his potential.
It is currently unclear which of these visions (if either) lies
behind the educational reforms being presently enacted. Initiatives taken by schools and teachers will have considerable
influence on the end result. Primary
level teachers may be best equipped to make significant changes in
teaching practices. Paper 3: Suzuki Kenji, European Institute of Japanese Studies (Stockholm). "Rethinking Japanfs Bad Loan Management: Implications from a Comparison with the Swedish Case"
In comparison with the cases of Sweden and other countries,
the bad loan management in Japan was extremely delayed. The Ministry of
Finance (MOF) is often
accused of this, with the assumption that it has held, or had held at least until recently, excessively strong power in the policy-making
process regarding the financial sector in Japan. Indeed, it
is true that the MOF enjoys a large scope of informal regulation supplemented
by the personal connections through "amakudari" system. They also hold a close contact with some particular
politicians called "zoku."
While those elements are usually mentioned as the factors to
facilitate the power of the
MOF, close connection with banks and politicians may also reduce the scope of the MOF's competence. If the
policy-making process is
conceptualized as the network linking relevant public / private actors, the Japanese financial authorities are seen as
trapped into sticky relations
with other actors in the network. As suggested in the
literature of network analysis, too close and closed connections may deteriorate
the competence of the actors in the network, partly because their
action tends to be restricted and partly because they tend to get less
information from outside. This
study aims to reconsider the direction of the ongoing reform in Japan
based on those considerations. To clarify the characteristics of the
policy network in Japan, some comparisons are made with the case of Sweden,
where the financial authorities' bad loan management is regarded as
one of the best practices in the world. Paper
4: Mika Mervio, The
University of Shimane. "Anthropocentrism in Japanese Environmental
Politics: Birds and Politics
in Japan"
The
ecological thinking has remained rather undeveloped in Japan. However, the environmental issues
themselves have become more significant in Japanese
politics, although the predominant approach tends to be quite anthropocentric. The Japanese
state woke to environmental protection and conservation
only after the World War II, and we have give a full credit to the environmental activism for
pressuring the authorities to become more active
in bird protection measures and, for instance, in developing more adequate environmental impact
assessment procedures and in implementing the anti-poaching legislation.
Ornithology
in Japan has a history worth of respect dating back to the Meiji period. However, it took
long before the ornithological research was brought to serve the aims of serious natural
conservation. The Wild Bird Society
of Japan (Nihon yacho no kai) was established in 1934 and nowadays represents well the community of
Japanese birdwatchers but it has seen many difficulties before becoming the most important organization
of birdwatchers
in East Asia.
Since
Japan is a populous, industrialized and mountainous country, the environmental destruction has
divided quite unevenly between different habitats. The richness of biotopes in Japan has
made it possible for some 550
bird species to be found in Japan. However, loosely regulated hunting and disappearance of habitat
have in many cases had a dramatic impact on the
numbers of bird populations. In some cases of birds living on the verge of extinction there is, at
least, massive popular interest in their struggle
for survival, the most noteworthy example being the media circus around the Crested Ibis (toki,
Nipponia nippon).
The
fiercest bird related disputes are connected with the wetland conservation. Since many of
these habitats are well-suited for rice farming, most have been reclaimed already a long
time ago (especially the once
so widespread marshlands). Many of the silt areas have been reclaimed and layered with concrete only
in recent years in the name of flood control and growing needs of expanding cities. Many of the
best birding sites in Japan,
including the great wader spots, are close to the big cities and their large bird watching communities. The bird protection disputes of the 1990s
are largely confined to these locations.
In
my paper I examine more closely some of the burning issues in Japan. The dispute of the Isahaya Bay ended
in the reclamation of the largest remaining
tidal flat (3000 hectares) in 1997. The process, however, created an unforeseen public outrage in
Japan and has permanently changed the atmosphere
of environmental debate in Japan, which became obvious in the so-called Fujimae case. The
Fujimae silt covers what is left of the large silt formation off the city of Nagoya. The city
administration planned to build
a garbage dump on the location of the most important birding site in Japan, but a massive popular
campaign and the involvement of the Environmental
Agency were able to stop the plan. Yanbaru in the northern part of Okinawa Island is the
training area under the control of the U.S. Marines and it has remained as one of the few areas
where the unique nature of
the Ryukyu Islands has been well preserved. Due to the base relocation scheme the habitat may soon
become threatened. Among the species of Yanbaru there are such celebrities as the Pryer's
Woodpecker (Noguchi gera, Sapheopipo
noguchii) and Okinawa Rail (Yanbaru kuina, Rallus
okinawae).
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