Cogent Social Sciences

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Comparison of perceptions regarding thereintroduction of river otters and oriental storks in
Japan
Ryo Sakurai, Richard C. Stedman, Hiroshi Tsunoda, Hiroto Enari & Takuro
Uehara |To cite this article: Ryo Sakurai, Richard C. Stedman, Hiroshi Tsunoda, Hiroto Enari & Takuro
Uehara | (2022) Comparison of perceptions regarding the reintroduction of river otters and oriental
storks in Japan, Cogent Social Sciences, 8:1, 2115656, DOI: 10.1080/23311886.2022.2115656
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2022.2115656© 2022 The Author(s). This open accessarticle is distributed under a Creative
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Sakurai et al., Cogent Social Sciences (2022), 8: 2115656
https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2022.2115656

SOCIOLOGY | RESEARCH ARTICLE

Comparison of perceptions regarding thereintroduction of river otters and oriental storks
in JapanReceived: 13 June 2022
Accepted: 18 August 2022
*Corresponding author: Ryo Sakurai,College of Policy Science, Ritsumeikan
University, 2-150, Iwakuracho,
Ibaraki 567-8570, Osaka, Japan
E-mail: ryo223sak@gmail.com
Reviewing editor:
Sandro Serpa, Sociology, Universityof the Azores, Ponta Delgada,
Portugal
Additional information is available atthe end of the article

Ryo Sakurai1*, Richard C. Stedman2, Hiroshi Tsunoda3, Hiroto Enari4 and Takuro Uehara1

Abstract: While reintroducing extirpated species is an important approach forrestoring self-regulating biodiverse ecosystems, previous studies have shown thatpublic support and understanding are indispensable for the success of such projects.
In this study, the attitudes of university students toward species that have alreadybeen reintroduced in Japan (oriental storks) and those that have not yet been
reintroduced (river otters) were compared. A questionnaire survey was conducted ina private university in Japan, and the results (n = 360) revealed that the students
more likely supported the reintroduction of oriental storks than that of river otters.
A majority did not know the reasons accounting for the extirpation of these species,
and a text mining analysis revealed that those who saw the news about reintro­
duction of oriental stork showed a higher likelihood to support the project. Thus, theparticipants’ attitudes toward species reintroduction were not necessarily affectedby their knowledge regarding the concerned species, but by the transient experi­
ences, such as watching news about the project.
Subjects: Environmental Communication; Sociology Social Policy; Higher Education
Keywords: species reintroduction; attitudes; extirpation; river otters; oriental storks
1. Introduction
1.1. Species reintroduction and human dimensions
The reintroduction of once exterminated species has been implemented globally (Hayward &Somers, 2009; Seddon et al., 2005; Soorae, 2018). In the field of restoration ecology, the impactsof such reintroduction projects have been investigated from an ecological perspective (Falk et al.,2006). Additionally, the idea of reviving ecosystems, while decreasing human interference, which isalso known as “rewilding,” has been a major focus of both academics and practitioners (Carver
et al., 2021; Jepson & Blythe, 2020).

PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT
While reintroducing extirpated species is an important approach for restoring self-regulating biodiverse
ecosystems, previous studies have shown that public support and understanding are indispensable forthe success of such projects. In this study, the attitudes of university students toward species that havealready been reintroduced in Japan (oriental storks) and those that have not yet been reintroduced (riverotters) were compared. A questionnaire survey was conducted in a private university in Japan, and theresults revealed that the students more likely supported the reintroduction of oriental storks than that ofriver otters. A text mining analysis revealed that those who saw the news about reintroduction oforiental stork showed a higher likelihood to support the project. Thus, the participants’ attitudes towardspecies reintroduction were not necessarily affected by their knowledge regarding the concerned
species, but by the transient experiences, such as watching news about the project.

© 2022 The Author(s). This open access article is distributed under a Creative Commons
Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license.

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Success cannot be realized in species reintroduction projects if the human dimensions of the
projects are neglected (Drouilly & O’Riain, 2021). For example, in Michigan, US, wolves werereintroduced in 1974 without assessing the social feasibility and the project failed as all released
wolves were killed, either shot or hit by cars soon after the reintroduction (Decker et al., 2001,
p. 312). A public survey conducted afterwards revealed that the majority of local residents wereagainst the reintroduction project (Decker et al., 2001, p. 312). Therefore, human dimension studies
on public perceptions regarding species reintroduction have been conducted globally, and theresults have been used to facilitate decision making in species reintroduction projects (Decker
et al., 2012; Enck & Brown, 2002; Jacobson, 1999; Ma et al., 2016; Slotow & Hunter, 2009). For
example, prior to wolf reintroduction in Yellowstone National Park, multiple surveys were con­ducted with local stakeholders (Bath, 1989; Bath & Buchanan, 1989), which could identify the
stakeholders (e.g., ranchers) who more likely had negative attitudes toward the project. These
results and information were used by project managers to set up a series of meetings and public
hearings, inviting those who particularly held negative perceptions, to raise mutual understanding
about the project (Jacobson, 1999).
The goal of rewilding is to restore the whole ecosystem and therefore reintroduction should be
ultimately attempted for all species that originally inhabited the region (Carver et al., 2021; Jepson& Blythe, 2020). However, public perceptions of different species have affected the decision making
regarding the animals that could be reintroduced (Seddon et al., 2005) resulting in only certain
species being reintroduced while others were ignored.
The above principles are demonstrated in Japan in the cases of oriental storks (Ciconia boyciana)
and river otters (Lutra lutra). While species such as oriental storks and crested ibis (Nipponia
nippon) were reintroduced in the country, river otters have never been officially considered for
reintroduction by the government. Especially in a democratic country like Japan, public perceptions
on a certain theme affect the decision making process (Murayama, 2009).
Japan went through a rapid economic growth during 1950s–70s, and around this time, species
such as river otters and oriental storks were extirpated. These species can cause conflicts withlocal residents. For example, river otters depredate stocked fishes (e.g., cyprinids and salmonids) innatural water systems, and sometimes also intrude into fish ponds (Adámek et al., 2003; Ando &Sasaki, 2001; Ludwig et al., 2002) and oriental storks frequently walk in paddy fields to feed on
aquatic organisms, stamping on rice (Kikuchi, 2006). These species play significant roles in theirrespective ecosystem as top-predators and are also recognized as symbols of ecological restora­tion and/or rewilding (Naito et al., 2011; Nathan et al., 2018). Therefore, considering feasibility as
well as significance of reintroducing river otters and oriental storks in Japan is important both fromglobal and local perspectives.
We conducted a survey for university students in Japan to understand how their attitudes
toward reintroduced and non-reintroduced species differ and what factors affect such attitudes,
and to gain insights on what hinders the progress of full-scale ecosystem restoration in the
country.

2. Literature review
2.1. Human dimension studies regarding species reintroduction all over the world
Globally, previous reintroduction projects have focused on the reintroduction of large mammals(Seddon et al., 2005). Example cases include the reintroduction of black rhinoceros in Kenya(Soorae, 2018, pp. 150–154), African lion in Zambia and Zimbabwe (Soorae, 2016, pp. 153–156),
and Pere David’s deer in China (Sills, 2021). Various human dimension studies have been con­ducted to clarify public perceptions regarding the reintroduction of species, however they havetended to focus on large species such as wolves (Bath, 1989; Nilsen et al., 2007; Williams et al.,2002). A study on public support to the reintroduction of another large mammal species, giant
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panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca), revealed that local residents in China strongly supported the
project, and those who liked wildlife and had higher levels of education tended to have positive
attitude toward the project (Ma et al., 2016). A study in Poland revealed that residents living inareas where European bison (Bison bonasus) reintroduction was planned expressed more negative
attitudes—associated with public concerns such as crop damage—toward this species than thoseliving close to forests, where the bison already lived (Klich et al., 2018). Additionally, in Australia,
the public seemed to approve the reintroduction of the dingo (C. dingo) into certain areas tosuppress native kangaroos (e.g., Macropus spp) and nonindigenous red foxes (Vulpes vulpes; Van
Eeden et al., 2019).
Limited literature is available on the public attitudes toward the reintroduction of smaller
species such as river otters and/or birds. Studies on these species are also important as the goalof ecosystem restoration as well as rewilding is to restore the full range of species at all trophic
levels, and it is necessary that the public recognizes intrinsic value of these species and desire tocoexist with them (Carver et al., 2021). In addition, comparative studies on public perceptions
regarding the reintroduction of several different species, including those that have already been
reintroduced and those that are yet to be reintroduced, are limited. It is also important to accesspublic attitude toward already reintroduced species as they could potentially cause certain con­flicts with people (such as reintroduced oriental storks making nests on the utility pole in a private
property [Kobe Shimbun, 2021], released beavers flooding private properties by making dams
[Pollock et al., 2015]).

2.2. Previous human dimension studies regarding targeted species in Japan
Japanese river otters used to be widely distributed across the country, from Kyushu to Hokkaido.
However, owing to hunting and poaching, as well as habitat destruction and water pollution, there
has been a steady decline in their population all over the country since the Meiji period, i.e., c.a.
1900s (Sasaki, 2015). The last river otter in the country was observed in Kouchi Prefecture in 1979
(Sasaki, 2015). There have been discussions about the possibility of their reintroduction (Ishigaki,
2005; Ishigaki & Nakagawa, 2005); however, no official projects have been considered by thegovernment till date. In 2017, several river otters were found in the Tsushima Islands, which arelocated in western Japan, and it was concluded that the otters migrated/dispersed from the
Korean peninsula into the island (Nakanishi & Izawa, 2019). This incidence brought attention to
the necessity of conserving these otters (Ministry of the Environment, 2018).
Oriental storks, which use agricultural-forest mosaic landscapes for foraging aquatic organisms
in wetlands and rice paddy fields, and use surrounding forests for nesting (Yamada et al., 2019),
were once found broadly across Japan. The decline in their populations could be attributed tohunting during the Meiji period as well as habitat loss, especially owing to deforestation during theSecond World War given that they use big trees for nesting (Kikuchi, 2006). The last wild oriental
stork was captured in the Toyooka area in the northern part of Hyogo Prefecture (West Japan) in
1971. However, unlike river otters, storks had already been reintroduced. In 1985, six storks weretranslocated from the former Soviet Union, for the purpose of captive breeding. As a result of thesuccessful breeding activities, their numbers in captivity increased to more than 100 by 2002
(Hyogo Park of the Oriental White Stork, 2020). In 2005, five storks were then reintroduced into thewild area of Toyooka, and more than 200 wild oriental storks currently live there and havedispersed into other regions in Japan (Hyogo Park of the Oriental White Stork, 2020).
To our knowledge, no studies have been conducted to determine and compare respondents’attitudes toward the reintroduction of different species. Such studies are scarce worldwide as mostof the studies have only focused on one species and the comparison of public attitudes towarddifferent species was hardly considered. Further, based on existing literature, no study has con­sidered public attitudes toward the reintroduction of already restored species and species that are
yet to be reintroduced. Results of such species comparison research would not only reveal
potential factors that hinder restoration of whole ecosystems but also provide insights on how
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to create social acceptance and support for large-scale ecological restoration through educationand communication programs.
Regarding oriental storks, previous studies that were conducted after the reintroduction haverevealed that in most cases, local residents supported their reintroduction (Honda, 2008;
Takahashi & Honda, 2016). With respect to river otters, while there is a study in which thefeasibility of their reintroduction from an ecological perspective was evaluated (Kim, 2015), there
seems to be few, if not, no previous studies regarding public attitudes toward reintroduction ofthese species in Japan.

2.3. Theoretical background and hypotheses of this study
Oriental storks have been successfully reintroduced in Japan, and even at the time when wildstorks were absent (since 1971 till 2005 when they were reintroduced) in the country, there wereoriental storks in captivity for the purpose of breeding and increasing their numbers, and local
residents never completely lost their relationship with this species. Therefore, as storks were
somewhat familiar, it was assumed that students’ attitudes toward reintroduction of oriental
storks were more positive than that for the river otters which are categorized as extinct species
and absent from Japanese landscapes for decades and may be perceived as not belonging inJapan. Therefore, our hypotheses were (1) students have more positive attitude toward reintro­
duction of oriental storks than that for river otters, and (2) students who know that oriental storks
were already reintroduced would have more positive attitude toward their reintroduction. These
hypotheses were developed based on the theory of mere-exposure effect which explains how
people develop preferences for things that they feel familiar with (Harmon-Jones & Allen, 2001;
Stafford & Grimes, 2012). Based on this theory, it could be speculated that people generally
associate more positive images to species that are already reintroduced than those that are not,and being familiar with oriental storks and knowing about their reintroduction will affect public
attitudes towards it.

3. Methods
3.1. Research questions
In this study, given that university students are said to be “future decision-makers” (Freed & Wong,
2019; Hermann et al., 2013), we conducted a survey at the College of Policy Science of Ritsumeikan
University. It is one of the biggest universities in Japan with more than 40,000 undergraduate
students. The college of Policy Science has approximately 1,600 undergraduate students. It waschosen because the university gives students the opportunity to study interdisciplinary subjects
related to policy and not specialize in certain academic fields, such as ecology. Thus, the students
in this college could therefore represent general university students better than those who are
already studying specialized and related subjects, such as wildlife management.
The survey was conducted under the framework of the course entitled, “Introduction to Social
Survey”, which is mandatory for all first year students. Therefore, it was a complete enumeration of
the first year students at the college as a sampling technique. The survey was conducted on
9 May 2019.

3.2. Analysis
To gain a better understanding of respondents’ basic information, descriptive data on sociodemographics, knowledge levels, and attitudes toward the reintroduction of the two species
were analyzed. Five-point scale responses (1. Disagree, 2. Slightly disagree, 3. Neither agree nor
disagree, 4. Slightly agree, and 5. Agree) were used to collect data on the attitudes of respondents
toward the reintroduction of different species. To test our first hypothesis regarding if there are
significant differences in respondents’ attitudes toward the reintroduction of these two species,
a Mann-Whitney U test was conducted as normal distribution was not assumed for our samples.
To test if the knowledge affects respondents’ attitudes toward the reintroduction of each species,
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we conducted a multiple regression analysis. Species specific knowledge questions (for river otters:
whether students knew (1) this species lived in Japan, (2) this species became extinct in Japan, and(3) reasons for this species extinction; for oriental storks: whether students knew (1) this species
once had gone extinct in Japan, (2) reasons of this species extinction, and (3) the fact that thisspecies was reintroduced in Japan [scored 1 for “Do not know”, 2 for “Know a little bit”, 3 for “Knowwell”]) and one general biology/ecology score (total score of five questions) were used as inde­
pendent variables while attitudes toward the reintroduction of each species were set as dependent
variables. Thereafter, we presented the results of the open-ended questions regarding respon­dents’ reasons for supporting or opposing species reintroduction. To quantitatively summarize
these results, a text mining analysis was conducted and words that were frequently used/written
for each attitude category (disagree, neutral, and agree) and for each species were identified. Text
mining was used as it is an appropriate method to analyze massive amount of text data and draw
implications. For our study, specifically, words with high Jaccard coefficients (degree of cooccurrence of the words and specific attitudes) for each species were presented in a table. We
also showed examples of actual sentences that students of each attitude category wrote for openended questions using those words.
All statistical analyses were performed using SPSS version 22.0 (IBM, Tokyo). Additionally, all text
mining analyses were performed using KH Coder software (Higuchi, n.d.).

4. Results
4.1. Socio-demographic characteristics and knowledge
All the students who were present for the class, “Introduction to Social Survey” on 9 May 2019(n = 360) participated in this study. Among them, 56.8 and 43.2 % were male and female,respectively. Most of them (65.0 %) were 18 years old, 27.1 % were 19 years old, and theremainder, approximately 10 %, were above 20 years old. Additionally, a greater portion ofthese students majored in liberal art (88.5 %) in high school, while just 11.5 % of them majoredin sciences. Further, it was observed that a majority of them currently live in urban areas (69.1 %)and a significant number of them grew up in urban areas (56.6 %).
Students’ knowledge about the considered species was relatively low. About 20 % of the
respondents knew river otters once lived in Japan while more than half of the respondents (54.7%) had no idea that this species was already extinct in Japan (Table 1). Among all respondents,
over 80 % of respondents did not know why river otters and oriental stork became extirpated inJapan. A majority of students (61.8 %) were also unaware of the fact that the oriental stork,
presently in Japan was reintroduced after extirpation.

4.2. Attitudes, reasons, and perceptions of reintroduction
Regarding attitudes toward species reintroduction, more respondents (30.6 %) disagreed to thereintroduction of river otters than those who agreed (26.2 %) while over 40 % neither agreed nor
disagreed to it (Table 2). On the other hand, the number who agreed (35.5 %) to the reintroductionof oriental storks was much higher than those who disagreed (13.7 %) while over half neither
agreed nor disagreed to it. The Mann-Whitney U test revealed that significantly more number ofstudents agreed with the reintroduction of oriental storks than those who agreed to the reintro­
duction of river otters (effect size r = 0.186, p < 0.01).
Multiple regression revealed that none of knowledge related items significantly affected respon­dents’ attitudes toward reintroduction of oriental storks. On the other hand, one item; whether
respondents knew the reasons of river otter extinction, affected their perceptions toward thereintroduction. The more respondents knew why river otters got extinct in Japan, the less likely
they supported reintroduction of this species (B = −0.193, p < 0.01).

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Table 1. Respondents’ knowledge level regarding river otters and oriental storks
Do not know (%)

Know a little bit (%)

Know well (%)

Did you know that wild
river otters once lived inJapan? (n = 350)

27.1

52.3

20.6

Do you know that theriver otters once lived inJapan went extinct?
(n = 353)

54.7

29.7

15.6

Do you know that theoriental storks that once
lived in Japan once went
extinct? (n = 353)

39.9

42.2

17.8

Do you know why riverotters went extinct inJapan? (n = 356)

84.3

10.1

5.6

Do you know whyoriental storks went
extinct in Japan?
(n = 354)

82.2

11.3

6.5

Do you know that, inJapan, once extirpatedoriental storks have been
reintroduced from othercountry? (n = 356)

61.8

23.6

14.6

Table 2. Respondents’ attitudes toward the reintroduction of river otters and oriental storks
Disagree(%)

Slightly
disagree(%)

Neitheragree
nor
disagree(%)

Slightly
agree
(%)

Agree
(%)

Mean
score

Standard
deviation

Attitude toward thereintroduction of riverotters in Japan.
(n = 359)

13.1

17.5

43.2

18.1

8.1

2.91

1.10

Attitude toward thereintroduction of theoriental storks thatwere released in
Toyooka, Hyogo in
2005. (n = 358)

3.9

9.8

50.8

22.1

13.4

3.31

0.96

We used the open-ended questions to further understand why respondents supported or
opposed reintroduction. A total of 746 words with 388 sentences were extracted from responses(n = 329, 91.4 % of all students) regarding respondents’ reasons for supporting or opposing thereintroduction of river otters. Those who opposed the reintroduction of this species frequently used
words, such as “ecosystem” and “exotic,” while those who supported its reintroduction frequently
used words, such as “human” and “back” (Table 3). The actual sentences students who disagreed
wrote include “if we release river otters which are exotic species, the ecosystem will collapse”
while those who agreed wrote sentences such as “river otters were extirpated by human, andtherefore, we have responsibility to bring them back to Japan” for those who agreed. Those whoneither disagreed nor agreed used words, such as “impact” and “knowledge.” The actual sentences
included “I do not have enough knowledge about river otters to judge” and “I do not know what
actual impact river otters will bring to the ecosystem.”

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reintroduction

exoticextinctJapan

creaturepossible

bring

good

other

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

10

12

11

12

14

16

18

17

35

42

Frequencies

0.078

0.083

0.090

0.096

0.108

0.114

0.127

0.133

0.195

0.209

Jaccardextinct

thinknature

human

hand

exoticcreature

once

again

consider

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

3

3

3

4

4

4

5

6

17

11

0.048

0.055

0.055

0.064

0.066

0.076

0.076

0.103

0.121

0.155

Those who disagreed to reintroduction of oriental
storksecosystem

1

Ranking Extracted WordsThose who disagreed to reintroduction ofriver otters

9

11

12

14

19

17

19

31

54

85

Frequencies

now

occur

oppositeknowledge

can be said

impactecosystemknow

reintroduction

oriental stork

8

8

9

10

18

20

31

42

62

78

Those who were neither disagreed nor agreed toreintroduction of oriental storks

consider

wolf

merit

knowledge

extinct

can be said

impactknow

ecosystem

river otter

Extracted Words

0.045

0.045

0.050

0.057

0.102

0.110

0.150

0.227

0.282

0.344

0.051

0.062

0.070

0.083

0.100

0.101

0.112

0.179

0.227

0.336

JaccardThose who were neither disagreed nor agreed toreintroduction of river otters

6

7

7

8

9

10

13

13

14

43

Frequencies

0.053

0.058

0.063

0.067

0.077

0.081

0.099

0.111

0.122

0.259

Jaccardincrease

see

hear

tourism

human

agree

negative impact

Japan

good

think

8

10

10

11

13

15

15

16

19

56

0.056

0.069

0.070

0.077

0.092

0.100

0.103

0.104

0.114

0.298

Those who agreed to reintroduction of oriental
storksbackwolf

problemenvironment

agree

animal

good

human

negative impact

think

Extracted WordsThose who agreed to reintroduction of riverottersTable 3. Frequently used words among respondents with different attitudes toward the reintroduction of river otters and oriental storks

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Additionally, a total of 713 words were extracted from 368 sentences corresponding to the
responses (n = 323, 89.7 % of all students) regarding their reasons for supporting or opposing
the reintroduction of oriental storks. Those who opposed the reintroduction of this species
frequently used words, such as “extinct” and “exotic,” while those who were in support fre­quently used words, such as “hear” and “see.” The actual sentences students who disagreed
wrote include “reintroduced oriental storks would become exotic species and other native
species would go extinct.” On the other hand, students who agreed wrote sentences such as“I did not know about oriental storks before but after seeing news about them, I felt attached tothese birds,” “I see news on how oriental storks came back and feel good about it”, “I hear a lotthat oriental storks are beautiful birds,” and “by seeing the news about reintroduction of oriental
storks, it seems like the project was a success.” Further, those who neither disagreed nor agreed
to the reintroduction of this species frequently used words, such as “ecosystem” and “impact.”
The actual sentences included “I cannot judge because I do not know if it had certain impacts tothe ecosystem.”

5. Discussion
5.1. Potential reasons for students to support or oppose reintroduction
Most respondents were unaware of the reasons behind the extirpation of river otters and oriental
storks in Japan. Moreover, a majority of them were not aware of the fact that oriental storks had
been reintroduced in the country, even though the reintroduction site (Hyogo prefecture) is locatednext to Osaka, where the university campus is located. In Japan, there are currently high school
biology textbooks that discuss the extinction of river otters and wolves and provide the reasons fortheir extinction, (e.g., habitat loss; Asajima et al., 2018, p. 304). The textbooks (Asajima et al., 2018,p. 360) also provide explanations regarding the extinction as well as the reintroduction of thecrested ibis in Japan, but do not mention the reintroduction of the oriental storks. Even thoughjunior high school science textbooks provide explanations regarding the importance of conserving
the natural environment, nothing is mentioned about the specific species that are extinct in Japan(Okamura & Fujishima, 2016). This lack of knowledge might be attributed to the fact that the
explanations provided in the textbooks are limited or even when these students learn about this inhigh or junior high school, such knowledge does not sufficiently take root in their minds.
Our first hypothesis of this research; “more respondents have more positive attitudes toward thereintroduction of oriental storks than river otters” was verified. This difference between oriental
storks and river otters might follow the theory of mere-exposure effects; potentially explaining thatpeople have positive attitudes toward species that they feel familiar to. This was clear from resultsof open-ended questions where several students wrote “because I heard about oriental storks andam familiar with this species” as the reason for supporting their reintroduction while there was nosuch answer for river otters.
The second hypothesis; “knowing about reintroduction of oriental stork increase support” wasnot verified based on the multiple regression analysis but was partially supported by the text
mining analysis results. The text mining analysis suggested that knowing oriental stork reintroduc­tion through media could increase support to this project as those who supported the reintroduc­tion frequently used words, such as “see” and “hear,” and their actual sentences included “I
support the reintroduction of oriental stork because I saw news on how its reintroduction took
place in Japan.” These observations imply that watching news regarding the reintroduction oforiental stork or hearing the story about the steps taken to increase their population could
enhance feelings of support. Another word that was frequently used was “tourism,” implyingthat respondents who thought the reintroduction of oriental storks could boost tourism weremore likely to show support in this regard. These findings suggest that attitudes toward thereintroduction of oriental stork are not necessarily affected by respondents’ level of knowledge
regarding the historical background of the species in the country, but was possibly affected bymedia (e.g., watching news reports on the local economic benefits of the reintroduction of oriental
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storks). This suggests that the efforts made by governments to promote oriental storks as the
symbol of biodiversity conservation (e.g., Toyooka city [Evaluation Committee of Oriental Stork
Reintroduction Project, 2014; Kikuchi, 2017]) have been successful in terms of nurturing people’s
positive attitude toward reintroduction.
On one hand, the regression analysis failed to demonstrate any significant relationship between
students’ knowledge and their attitudes toward stork reintroduction, and on the other hand, thetext mining analysis demonstrated that certain students have positive attitude toward the project
because they saw news about it. This implied that the association of knowledge toward attitude
was not so obvious to generate significant outcome, and further research is necessary to under­
stand which factors affect people’s attitudes toward already reintroduced species.
The finding that knowledge about reasons for river otter extinction negatively affected respon­dents’ attitudes toward reintroduction, implied the possibility that those who knew the actual
reasons (such as habitat loss) for extirpation might have thought that the natural environment of
the country is still not livable for this species. However, such words as “habitat loss” were notextracted from the open-ended questions as frequently used words for those who disagreed withthe reintroduction of river otters, and further research would be necessary to explore why thisspecific knowledge negatively affected respondents’ attitudes toward river otters reintroduction.
Even though the data cannot be generalized to students in other universities nor Japanesecitizens, our results indicate how people perceive the reintroduction of once extirpated species,
particularly smaller mammals or bird species. Contrary to previous studies that found people withmore knowledge of the species (e.g., wolves) more likely to have supported the reintroduction ofthat species (Enck & Brown, 2002; Gosling et al., 2019), knowledge was not associated withattitude for reintroduction of oriental storks. For river otters, more knowledge reduced students’support toward reintroduction. In other words, people’s attitudes toward the reintroduction ofsmaller mammals or birds as well as already reintroduced species are not necessarily affected byknowledge, nor show a positive linear relationship. As factors affecting attitude toward reintroduc­tion of such species could be different from what has been studied in terms of public attitude
toward larger species, we recommend future studies to investigate a different set of factors to test
how they could explain people’s attitudes toward the reintroduction of those less studied species.

5.2. Implication for accepting “new normal”
Two implications could be considered from our results. First, the respondents seemed to have
limited knowledge regarding the topic of this study, and their attitudes toward the topic could be
shaped based on their misperceptions and unscientific knowledge. One of the words that had highassociation with the attitudes of disagreement to reintroduce oriental storks was “exotic” implyingthat they seemed to be unaware of the fact that the reintroduced oriental stork is the same
species as those that originally lived in Japan (Naito et al., 2011).
Second, our results imply that whether people agree (or disagree) to the reintroduction oforiental storks is not necessarily only influenced by knowledge but is possibly affected toa greater extent by transient episodes or experiences such as whether they watched the news
or not. Alternatively, as long as people’s attitudes are potentially only influenced by media, theirattitudes toward reintroduction could become negative once they watch media reports related to
the negative impacts of the reintroduced species (e.g., agricultural, fisheries, or property damage).
In Toyooka, where oriental storks were reintroduced, “Furusato Kyoiku” (i.e., education about the
local area) was implemented in all elementary and junior high schools in the city since 2017, in
which students study oriental storks (Honda, 2019). Taking such studies deepens students’ under­
standing regarding living with oriental storks. It also boosts their willingness to encourage thecoexistence of people and oriental storks (Honda, 2019). Further, the reintroduction of oriental
storks has not been limited only to Toyooka, but has been realized all over Japan (e.g., Noda city inPage 9 of 13

Sakurai et al., Cogent Social Sciences (2022), 8: 2115656
https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2022.2115656

Chiba Prefecture as well as Echizen city in Fukui Prefecture; Ezaki & Ohsako, 2019), and similareffects are expected (e.g., more locally-based educational curriculum related to oriental storks is
implemented and local people increase their support for the coexistence of oriental storks withpeople).
These observations imply that “living with once exterminated oriental storks” is now becoming
a “new-normal” in many areas of Japan including urban residents (such as the respondents in thissurvey). Even though most of these city dwellers have probably not seen oriental storks in the wild,
they are even beginning to accept this fact and are showing positive attitude toward it, owing to
the effect of media and other sources. Further, species reintroduction does not necessarily imply
the replication of past conditions. Considering climate change, dynamic nature of ecologicalsystems, and changing human societies (e.g., depopulation in Japan), it is impossible to replicate
the exact relationship that previously existed between wildlife and humans (Seddon & van Heezik,2013). The relationship that current local citizens have with the reintroduced oriental storks isdifferent from how people used to live with this species more than half a century ago (Kikuchi,2006).
Wild river otters were observed in Tsushima in 2017 and given that they have the potential toincrease their population in the near future (Nakanishi & Izawa, 2019), living with them could
become a new-normal for the residents of this island. As river otters have been absent from thecountry for nearly half a century, these wild river otters could be seen as “new species” by local
residents. However, given that the replication of past conditions is not feasible, the establishmentof a closely related taxon for the restoration of ecological functions could become a pathway forrealistic environmental management in the future (Seddon & van Heezik, 2013).

6. Conclusion
Species reintroduction has been implemented globally. However, studies on people’s understand­ing regarding the overall impacts and significance of such projects as well as how their attitudes
change (or remain unchanged) after the reintroduction are lacking (Drouilly & O’Riain, 2021).
People’s perceptions and attitudes toward a certain topic could change over time as seen fromthe cases where public attitudes toward species (e.g., bears, wolves) became negative once they
started to flourish within landscapes (Eriksson et al., 2015; Majic et al., 2011). These studies
demonstrate the importance of monitoring public attitudes toward the species even after the
reintroduction (like the case of human dimension studies on oriental storks in Japan).
Meanwhile, by comparing students’ attitudes toward the reintroduction of already reintroduced
species and species that have not yet been reintroduced, we were able to demonstrate how public
attitudes could become positive by being exposed to the media surrounding a project whileattitudes toward other extirpated species (river otters) remained negative despite the fact thatthey seemed to cause less conflicts with humans compared to other larger species such as wolves.
In addition, our results implied that misunderstandings concerning species in this study (e.g.,
reintroduced species being exotic species) could stop people from supporting species reintroduc­tion. Educational resources might need to include explanations regarding the meaning of species
reintroduction and restoration as well as identity (e.g., reintroduced species being the same
species as those that lived in the country before). As public perceptions will remain important forthe success of species reintroduction in the future, more social studies are necessary to under­
stand what affects such attitudes.
Funding
The authors received no direct funding for this research.
Author details
Ryo Sakurai1
E-mail: ryo223sak@gmail.com
ORCID ID: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4129-9419
Richard C. Stedman2

Hiroshi Tsunoda3
Hiroto Enari4
Takuro Uehara1
1
College of Policy Science, Ritsumeikan University, Ibaraki,
Japan.
2
Center for Conservation Social Sciences, Department of
Natural Resources and the Environment, Cornell
University, Ithaca, NY, USA.

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https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2022.2115656

3

Natural Environment Group, Center for Environmental
Science in Saitama, Kazo, Japan.
4
Faculty of Agriculture, Yamagata University, Tsuruoka,
Japan.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by theauthor(s).
Data Availability Statement
The anonymized data presented in this study are available
on request from the corresponding author. The data are
not publicly available as no explicit permission was
requested from respondents to share their data publicly.
Citation information
Cite this article as: Comparison of perceptions regarding
the reintroduction of river otters and oriental storks inJapan, Ryo Sakurai, Richard C. Stedman, Hiroshi Tsunoda,
Hiroto Enari & Takuro Uehara, Cogent Social Sciences(2022), 8: 2115656.
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