Japanese Political Economy of the Environment Theory, History and Development

The Perspectives of Japanese Political Economy of the Environment, Toshikazu Yamakawa and Kei Ehara Part 1 Thoughts and Theories 1. K. W. Kapp’s Social Cost Theory in Japan: Historical Development and Contemporary Perspectives, Toshikazu Yamakawa 2. Shigeto Tsuru and the Political Economy of Pollution and the Environment: the Pioneer’s Methodology and Perspective, Yuki Hajima 3. Development of Hirofumi Uzawa’s ‘Social Overhead Capital’ Theory: an Intellectual Approach, Midori Wakamori 4. Environmental Economics and Ecosocialism in Japan: A Three-Stage Analysis, Kohei Saito 5. Methodological Dualism in Political Economy of Population and Nature: Reviewing Discussions on the Law of Population, Kei Ehara 6. Japanese Marxian Studies of Joint-stock Capital and Degrowth Theory, Kei Ehara and Shinya Shibasaki 7. The Significance and Limitations of Entropy Economics and the Flow-fund Model: From the Perspective of the History of Economic Thought, Takashi Seo 8. Politicization of Values, or Valuation of the Environmental, Taizo Yamamoto Part 2 History and Policies 9. From Shrine to Machine: Labor-Intensive Industrialization, Life, and Environment in the 20th Century Ota Ward, Tokyo, Satoru Kobori 10. Environmental Regeneration and Transitional Governance in Pollution-affected (Kōgai) Areas: The Cases of Ashio Town and the Jinzū River Basin in Japan, Kohei Seki 11. Japanese Pollution Studies and the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster, Masafumi Yokemoto 12. Prolonging the Use of Nuclear and Thermal Power Proceeds under Decarbonization Policy, Kenichi Oshima 13. The Carbon-Captive Structure of the Political Economy in Japan, Kensuke Yoshihiro and Toshikazu Yamakawa 14. Japan’s Energy Security and Russia’s Position: From Partial Dependence to Sanctions, Takeo Hidai

Biography

Toshikazu Yamakawa is a Professor of Environmental Economics at St. Andrew’s University, Japan. He is an author of ‘Assessing the environmental and climate crisis in the Japanese context: Shigeto Tsuru revisited’ (The Japanese Political Economy, 49(2–3)).

Kei Ehara is an Associate Professor of Political Economy at Ritsumeikan University, Japan. He is an editor of Japanese Discourses on the Marxian Theory of Finance (Palgrave/Macmillan).

“This book considers Japan's early industrial pollution, imperialist expansion, ecological modernization after 1960 leading to the crucial Fukushima disaster. It links the historical moments to the birth of critical schools of political ecology and political economics of international importance such as that of Shigeto Tsuru’s and, nowadays, Kohei Saito’s. It remembers famous activists such as Tanaka Shozo in 1900, those opposing the Minamata disaster, and the Kiko network today. It is a book with world appeal.”

-Joan Martínez Alier, ICTA-Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain

“The world is grappling with the urgent question of how to confront complex problems of pollution, the environment, and the use of resources and energy. This excellent book explores Japanese contributions to this global challenge through theories and policies grounded in the political economy approach.”

-Shun’ichi Teranishi, Hitotsubashi University, Japan

 

“Japanese Political Economy of the Environment is a unique collection exploring Japanese scholars' social-ecological economic thought critiquing mainstream orthodoxy. A rich tradition of rethinking economics is revealed, connecting to Marx, Kapp, Georgescu-Roegen and much more. Thought provoking, historically informed and highly policy relevant.”

-Clive L. Spash, Centre for Social-Ecological Economics, Norway