KCJS 2024 Autumn Term
Course title: Japan and East Asian Regional Environmental Issues
Term taught: Autumn 2024
Class days/times: Friday 13:10-14:40 & 14:55-16:25
Classroom location: TBC
Course format: Seminar
Number of points for the course: 4 Points
Instructor: Aysun Uyar Makibayashi(Doshisha University, Faculty of Global and Regional Studies)
Email address: auyar@mail.doshisha.ac.jp
Oﬃce location: Shikokan SK310, Karasuma Campus, Doshisha University
Oﬃce hours: Monday 13:00-14:00 or appointment by email
Course Description
This course aims to provide students with a basic understanding of global and regional
environmental politics while focusing on Japan`s approach to environmental andsustainability-related issues in East Asia. The perspectives of international relations will
be utilized while analyzing the actors and the recent regimes of global environmental
issues in East Asia. After a brief introduction about the politics of global environmental
issues, Japan`s stance vis a vis the recent global and regional environmental regimes will
be scrutinized through comparative case studies, group discussions, group projects, andpresentations. Kyoto has an important place within the history of environmental change
agenda since the ﬁrst global climate regime (Kyoto Protocol) was initiated in Kyoto in
1997. There will be ﬁeld trips to important governmental institutions, research
institutions, education facilities, and civil society initiatives about environment tounderstand and analyze the position of Kyoto within the recent agenda of global andregional environmental politics.
Course OutcomesStudents are expected to advance their understanding on the discourse of global andregional environmental politics while taking a rather critical approach to the recent
discussions of global environmental change and looking at Japan in terms of its
involvement with this agenda. They are also expected to raise their awareness about
regional peculiarities and potentials on how to cope with the changing agenda ofenvironment- and sustainability-related issues.
Course Materials

1There is a list of required and further reading materials. Further readings and additional
resources will be provided during each class. There will also be data slides and video
presentations as supplementary class materials.

Required reading materials:
Conca, K. and G. Dabelko (eds.). 2020. Green Planet Blues: Critical Perspectives on
Global Environmental Politics. Oxon: Routledge, 6th ed. ISBN: 978-0813350936.
Karan, Pradyumna, P. 2005. Japan in the 21st Century: Environment, Economy, andSociety. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN: 978-0813191188.
Further readings:
Brazil, Mark. 2022. Japan: The Natural History of an Asian Archipelago, New Jersey:
Princeton University Press. ISBN: 978-0691175065.
Internet Resources:
Asian Development Bank: https://www.adb.org/what-we-do/topics/environment
NIES (National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan):https://www.nies.go.jp/program/pasia-e.html
UNEP (United National Environment Programme):
https://www.unep.org/regions/asia-and-paciﬁc
World Bank: https://www.worldbank.org/en/region/eap/brief/climate-anddevelopment-in-east-asia-and-paciﬁc-region*More internet resources will be introduced during the term.
Course requirements and evaluation
Attendance: Daily attendance is mandatory. It is also a general manner not to be late to
the class. So, please donʼt enter the classroom if you are more than 15 minutes late. Incase you might be late or absent from a class, please notify your instructor as soon aspossible.

Participation: 10% (Class attendance does not mean class participation. Students areexpected to attend each class and actively participate in class debates. There are many
topics and issues to cover in this course. For this reason, it is very important to read theassigned materials and get prepared before each class.)
Group project and presentation: 20% (Students are expected to set a group andpresent on a topic of interest (related with the course topic and to be assigned during
the course) to improve their comprehension about the main topics.)
Mid-term essay: 20% (A mid-term in an essay format is set to evaluate how students
are following and responding to the class discussions, lectures, and reading materials.)2

Final essay: 30% (Final paper will reﬂect on students` overall understanding of Japan in
the middle of global and regional environmental change issues and how Japan issituating itself vis a vis other regional actors and international institutions.)
Field trip report: 20% (We will have two or three ﬁeld trips depending on the scheduleof our course. Students will write a short report on one of the ﬁeld trips by focusing on
the purpose, plan, topic, and any lessons we learn during our trips.)
Schedule of the Semester
Part I: Global and regional environmental politics
Week 1 (9/6, Fri, 13:10-16:25)

Course introduction (Global and regional environmental politics (Humanity andnature, humanity in nature))
Assignment: Conca and Dabelko Ch.1, 2, 3
Theories and approaches in global and regional environmental politics(Introduction of group topics)
Assignment: Karan Ch.1
Week 2 (9/13, Fri, 13:10-16:25)
Actors of global and regional environmental politics
Assignment: Conca and Dabelko Ch.6, 7Institutions of global and regional environmental politics (Selection of grouptopics)
Assignment: Conca and Dabelko Ch.11; Karan Ch.2
Part II: East Asian regional environmental politics
Week 3 (9/20, Fri, 13:10-16:25)

Japan in East Asian regional environmental politics (Group setting)
Assignment: Karan Ch.4, 5
Week 4 (10/4, Fri, 13:10-16:25)
Field trip 1 (Kyoto City Hall, Oﬃce of Environmental Policy, TBC)
Week 5 (10/11, Fri, 13:10-16:25)
China in East Asian regional environmental politics
Assignment: Conca and Dabelko Ch.8; Karan Ch.7Week 6 (10/25, Fri, 13:10-16:25)
South Korea in East Asian regional environmental politics(Finalize presentation topics and dates & Mid-term essay)
Assignment: Karan Ch.8
Part III: East Asian regional environmental issues
Week 7 (11/1, Fri, 13:10-16:25)

Globalization, sustainability (SDGs), and development
Assignment: Conca and Dabelko Ch. 16, 17, 18, 193

Week 8 (11/8, Fri, 13:10-16:25)
Field trip 2 (RIHN, TBC)
Week 9 (11/15, Fri, 13:10-16:25)
Climate change and environmental security
Assignment: Conca and Dabelko Ch.4, 13, 14, 15; Karan Ch.13
Week 10 (11/22, Fri, 13:10-16:25)
Biodiversity, energy, and food
Assignment: Conca and Dabelko Ch.27, 28; Karan Ch.14
Week 11 (11/29, Fri, 13:10-16:25)
Group presentations
Group presentations and class discussion
Week 12 (12/6, Fri, 13:10-16:25)
Field trip 3 (TBC) & (Field-trip report submission)
FINAL (12/10~11, TBC)

Final essay
Note: This syllabus might be subject to changes and/or revisions.

Course policies

Course format: The course is structured in a seminar format with introductory lectures,group projects, and debates. There are weekly reading materials and supplementarymaterials like academic articles, data slides, and video presentations. Students arestrongly encouraged to participate in class discussions with questions and criticalcomments on main topics.
Field trip: There will be ﬁeld trips to important governmental institutions, research
institutions, education facilities, and civil society initiatives about environment tounderstand and analyze the position of Kyoto within the recent agenda of global andregional environmental politics. We will have two or three ﬁeld trips depending on theschedule of our course. Students will write a short report on one of the ﬁeld trips byfocusing on the purpose, plan, topic, and any lessons we learn during our trips.
Classroom policy: As the general language of the course is English, dictionaries can beused during the class. Nevertheless, use of any mobile phones/devices/computers
without class purposes is strictly forbidden. Drinks are allowed but eating is not
welcomed in the classroom.

“As members of an academic community, each one of us bears the responsibility topar6cipate in scholarly discourse and research in a manner characterized byintellectual honesty and scholarly integrity. Collabora6ve scholarship requires thestudy of other scholars' work, the free discussion of such work, and the explicit
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acknowledgement of those ideas in any work that inform our own. This exchange ofideas relies upon a mutual trust that sources, opinions, facts, and insights will beproperly noted and carefully credited. In prac6cal terms, this means that, asstudents, all work submiCed in this course, whether in draD or ﬁnal form, must be
your own. You must be responsible for the full cita6ons of others' ideas in all of yourresearch papers and projects; you must be scrupulously honest when taking yourexamina6ons; you must always submit your own work and not that of anotherstudent, scholar, or internet agent. Any breach of this intellectual responsibility is abreach of faith with the rest of our academic community. It undermines our sharedintellectual culture, and it cannot be tolerated.”“The use of ChatGPT or any other AI tools for course assignments (with the excep6onof ar6ﬁcial neural networks like DeepL for machine transla6ons, duly cited) istantamount to plagiarism. Any cases of plagiarism or chea6ng will be reported toColumbia Undergraduate Global Engagement and the academic advisor at yourhome ins6tu6on and are subject to the code of academic conduct there. In suchcases, your ﬁnal grade will be determined by your home ins6tu6on and not by KCJS.”

Accommodation policy:“If you are a student with a disability and have a Disability Services-certiﬁed

ʻAccommodation Letterʼ from your home institution, please send me thisletter before the ﬁrst day of class to conﬁrm your accommodation needs. If
you believe that you might have a disability that requires accommodation anddo not have an accommodations letter, you should contact the Center for
Undergraduate Global Engagement at Columbia University(uge@columbia.edu).”5