ABSTRACT
The development of environmental policies is moulded by the interactions of the government, industry and other interest groups. 1 These in turn are influenced by a broad array of physical, socio-cultural and economic factors. In the traditional Japanese view, nature and humans are not separate entities, and environmental preservation is not ‘right’ in the same sense as Westerners view it. 2 Thus an essentially Western concept like EIA, which emphasizes protecting the natural environment from human destruction, could never be simply imported unchanged in Japan. 3 When EIA was adopted into Japan’s decision-making structure it was ‘Japanized’ so that some of the elements that in the West are considered a prerequisite for its effective implementation were severely weakened. The result is a strange hybrid: judged by Western standards, it is intrinsically weak, and from a Japanese perspective it conforms badly with the traditional decision-making process.
