ABSTRACT
Starting with the first international UN conference on the environment in Stockholm in 1972, sustainable development and the environment have become major foci of activity for advocacy NGOs, and since the 1980s NGOs active in this area have proliferated worldwide. Over the years, there have been countless campaigns and movements organized by advocacy NGOs to promote more environment-friendly policies that have made headline news, ranging from protests against World Bank projects in developing countries to campaigns for sustainable tropical timber practices to a multitude of efforts to stop global warming. While still relatively small-scale and less influential than their counterparts in many other industrialized countries, Japanese advocacy NGOs have also recently become active and visible players in the politics of sustainable development and Japan’s global environmental policies. This chapter examines advocacy NGOs working in the area of environment and traces the ways in which the domestic and international political contexts have shaped the evolution of this type of group. It provides some data on environmental advocacy NGOs in general, but focuses mainly on a smaller sub-group of NGOs advocating policies that promote sustainable development in developing countries.
