COMPLETION REPORT

Socio-cultural Aspect of Citizen Participation Governance in Tama River Basin (Japan) Conservation
Dr. Susy Aisyah Nataliwati
Researcher/Expert Staff to Vice Director
Center for Japanese Studies
University Indonesia
Japanese environmental management is characterized by three aspects: a triangular model of actors (government,public and business), stakeholders relationship build on a consensus-oriented negotiation process, and a strong
basis in environmental ethics and values. All these aspects were rooted in Japan’s political-economic structure,social norms and cultural context. Japanese National Character Survey revealed that, since 1953 until 2008, theperception, sense and attitudes of Japanese people toward their relation with nature or environment is changing.
There were increasing opinions that man must ‘follow and obey the nature’ in purpose for happy life, contrast to
the decreasing of ‘make use and conquer nature’ attitudes. Long history of public participation in Tama RiverConservation (Tama Gawazukuri) shows that shared knowledge about natural resources itself is important forbuilding environmental ethics; respected leadership of key persons and organizations, moral standards and mutualtrust are proven important for building good consensus; and the three party of stakeholders can achieved benefit
relationship with the respect for people empowerment and social learning process.
Public involvement in Tama Gawazukuri started since 1964 when the River Law was enacted. In 1970, the first
civil group for Tama River, ‘Association for Nature Conservation in Tama River’ was established. In 1974, anumbrella organization for multiple groups, the ‘Association for Nature Conservation Groups in Tama River
System’ was formed. However, at that time Tama River still polluted by household and chemical waste, and in1975, was dishonored as the 5th worst first-class river in terms of water quality. A decade after, in 1986, TamaRiver Summit, the first roundtable conference of river management stakeholders was held.
In 1992, the Workshop on Springs and Cliff Lines declared a resolution entitled ‘The Three Principles and Seven
Rules’, in purpose for building partnership among different stakeholders in a manner that avoids waste of timeover conflicts on unimportant issue. The Three Principles are: (1) Free discussion, (2) Full/thorough discussion, (3)Prior consent of stakeholders before taking action. The Seven Rules are: (1) Speakers may express opinions which
are not necessarily on behalf of those organization to which they are belong, (2) No one shall ever be assailed withhostile questions, (3) Fair play and fairness shall be strictly observed, (4) Discussions should be based on scientificdata, (5) Discussions should be aimed at reaching agreement among the members after clarifying the points indispute, (6) The issues in dispute should be discussed only with reference to a particular case and should never begeneralized, (7) Projects should be divided into long-term projects and short-term projects. Opinions that areoffered should be practicable. This resolution is the first socio-cultural basic for Tama River management thatadopted formally. Therefore, good consensus can be achieved in order to enhance social bonding (kizuna) between
peoples based on the values of mutual trust, loyalties, and sense of home place.
In 1994, The Tama Center was established and became the platform for NPOs activities. Then, in 1998, six years
after the resolution of ‘3 Principles & 7 Rules’ adopted, Tama River Basin Conference was held, proceeded with 8times roundtables and seminars, also 5 times River Basin Commission meetings. They finally reached anagreement of Tama River Basin Improvement Plan in 2001. The whole process involved 26,600 peoples consistsof local govenment, residents, NGO, industry, academics and river administrator. Between those activities, in 1999,
Tama River Ecomuseum (Nikaryou Seseragikan) was established and develop as a learning center. The visitors
consist of active residents, school children, authorities, NPO, and river related communities from all over Japan. It

is also become a meeting place between young and senior generation; between peoples with different interest, forexample: bio diversity experts, story teller, environmental education for children activist. This communities
continuously activities with high effort and passion can be regarded as an important development for public
participation process improvement. Furthermore, the discussion held for 10th anniversary of the Nikaryou
Seseragikan revealed that some cultural values shared by the communities influenced the spirit of Tama
Gawazukuri. The relation between public and the government described as ‘children grows by looking at theirparent’s back’, means the character of public participation depends also on government action. The communities
sense of rootedness to Tama River can be seen in their activities on making the chance to be presence and feel thenature by one’s own hands and foots, that gives an emotionally touching spirit. Those cultural values are nurtured
and become a basic for environmental ethics.
Lesson learned for Indonesia, the local government should develop methods for encouraging more active publicparticipation based on informal and formal consensus between stakeholders and intensive communication between
key persons. It is also important to build synergic knots as a space for social learning, either a temporally regular
events or an established learning center, which will improve the society’s social bonding.

Pic. 1. Shukugawara Weir in Tama River

Pic. 2. Tama Riverbed side

Pic. 3. Nikaryou Seseragikan

Pic. 4. Communities activities display in NS

Publication of the Results of Research Project:
Verbal Presentation (Date, Venue, Name of Conference, Title of Presentation, Presenter, etc.)
Planning:
International Convention of Asia Scholars, July 20-23rd 2017, at Chiang Mai, Thailand, organized byInternational Institute for Asian Studies, Netherland.
Thesis (Name of Journal and its Date, Title and Author of Thesis, etc.)
Indonesian Journal of Japanese Studies.
Book (Publisher and Date of the Book, Title and Author of the Book, etc.)