Abstract
This chapter outlines the history of environmental management in Japan with special reference to the resource constraints under which economic development has taken place. It discusses the development of government policies for managing the environmental risks associated with economic growth. While Japan’s industrialization and economic development have been extensively studied by economic historians, the history of the environmental degradation, both inside and outside the country, that accompanied economic growth has been relatively neglected. Japan is an island nation stretching roughly 3,000 kilometres from north to south. It covers an area of 370,835 square kilometres or about one-twenty fifth the size of the USA. Japan’s superior performance compared with that of the USA and other developed economies was achieved despite the country being much poorer in natural resources. The origin of serious environmental problems in Japan is usually traced to the Meiji era when Japan embarked upon modern economic growth.