Japan experienced rapid industrial growth after World War II, but its economic
miracle brought dramatic environmental deterioration. In the early 1970s, as
local protest movements grew more vocal, the Japanese government moved
relatively swiftly to regulate industrial pollution and succeeded in reducing
its air and water pollution, but not many other environmental problems. This
book analyzes the social, cultural, and political-economic causes of Japan's
dramatic environmental damage and eventual partial restoration from 1955 to
1995. A case of regional heavy industrial growth and environmental protest in
rural Japan provides the local details of how pro-growth and pro-environment
coalitions mobilized, struggled, and affected policy outcomes in Japan. The
author uses