Abstract
This chapter, as a first step of this book’s analysis on Japanese history of economy-environment relationship, overviews its long-term trends. First, we look at the trends of economic growth, environmental burdens, and environmental legislation. Then, to understand more clearly the relationships among them, we conduct a long-term estimation of three kinds of environmental costs: the costs of environmental measures, rents, and latent environmental costs.
By comparing these data and information, we divide the history into three periods—that is, from the 1960s to around 1970, from around 1970 to the mid-1980s, and from the mid-1980s to around 2010—and specify the economy-environment nexus for each period. In short, in the first period, latent environmental costs rose while rents and environmental-measure costs stayed low, showing a delay in the formulation of institutions against pollution. In the second period, environmental-measure costs and rents rose and latent environmental costs decreased, showing strengthened institutions against pollution, as well as impacts of the oil crisis. In the third period, there were no significant changes in environmental-measure costs and latent environmental costs, showing that strict institutions such as regulations were not formulated.
Using the estimations and observations in this chapter as a starting point, we proceed with a more detailed analysis in the following chapters.
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Notes
- 1.
When compared with the estimation by Japanese Research Institute (2004), this estimation covers a long-term period, omitting some categories of smaller magnitude, while adding energy-saving and environmental R&D in line with our interest in climate change and competitiveness, respectively.
- 2.
SEEA 1993 proposed the maintenance cost approach, recognizing that it “corresponds to the method of calculating the value of the depreciation of produced fixed assets” (United Nations 1993).
- 3.
When compared with the estimation by Japanese Research Institute (2004), this estimation extends the timeline so as to cover a long-term and consecutive period, while narrowing the scope to just a few categories of pollutants.
References
Japan Research Institute (1998) Report on estimation of the integrated environmental and economic accounting (in Japanese). Japan Research Institute, Tokyo
Japan Research Institute (2004) Report on reconstruction of the integrated environmental and economic accounting after the revision of SEEA (in Japanese). Japan Research Institute, Tokyo
Okuma K (2016) Long-term transformation of the economy–environment nexus in Japan: a historical analysis of environmental institutions and growth regimes based on the regulation theory. Evol Inst Econ Rev 13:217–237
United Nations (1993) Integrated environmental and economic accounting: interim version. United Nations, New York
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Okuma, K. (2017). Overview of Long-Term Trends of the Economy-Environment Nexus in Japan. In: The Evolving Relationship between Economy and Environment. Evolutionary Economics and Social Complexity Science, vol 8. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4100-6_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4100-6_7
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