| Budget Amount *help |
¥3,094,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,380,000、Indirect Cost: ¥714,000)
Fiscal Year 2011: ¥1,482,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,140,000、Indirect Cost: ¥342,000)
Fiscal Year 2010: ¥1,612,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,240,000、Indirect Cost: ¥372,000)
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| Research Abstract |
The grass roots fight to recover the environment of Teshima,"the garbage island", and role of the mass media.
In 1990, the worst incidence of illegal dumping of industrial waste in Japan was discovered on Teshima Island of Kagawa prefecture, 550 kilometers south west from Tokyo. Teshima Island is only 20 kilometers round and at the time had a population of 1588.
A research questionnaire was sent to the residents of Teshima Island, including 991 residents of 450 households in 2011, interviews were conducted with the residents, the former chairperson of the Japan Bar Association, Mr. Kohei Nakabo, and journalists who covered the Teshima incident.
130 residents responded to the questionnaire and there are very interesting results. 74 percent of residents answered that they were anxious about the future of the mediation at the beginning. 13 percent thought the mediation could go wrong. Even with this level of anxiety, the residents of Teshima assembled and started their fight.
Through the questionnaire we learned that"handing down a clean island to posterity,"and"anger and sadness at having their dignity trampled "were also strong motives in their fight.
On the question regarding their actual participation in the struggle, 41 percent of residents attended the protests against the local government that lasted for 150 days, and two-thirds of the residents attended the election campaign to send a Teshima resident to the prefectural assembly. Each person felt that they had done everything they possibly could, and that they had fought for the grass roots movement.
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