EnvironmentalSociology
inJapan

JAESJapanese Association forEnvironmental Sociology

ENVIRONMENTAL
SOCIOLOGY in JAPANThe Japanese Association for Environmental Sociology (JAES)
October 2019

Brief History

Japanese environmental sociology has roots that go back to the early
1960s, when it mainly focused its attention on the analysis of social
mechanisms that produced pollution victims. This can be attributed
mainly to the fact that Japan suffered from severe environmental
disruptions (kōgai) in the 1960s and 1970s. A few examples of the disruptions are Minamata and Itai-Itai diseases, but the list continues
endlessly. Researchers, therefore, conducted case studies occasionally accompanied by in-depth interviews, intending to understandsubjective reactions of victims as well as their protest activities and to
uncover the mechanisms of societal and environmental disruption in
local communities. Sociologists of the time considered analyzing thestructure of victimization as more urgent than the HEP-NEP paradigm
change controversy. In the late 1980s, Japanese sociologists whose interests focused on environmental problems gathered at a symposium.
They founded a small informal association in 1990, the predecessor ofThe Japanese Association for Environmental Sociology. The late Prof.
IIJIMA Nobuko (1938-2001), a pioneer in Japanese environmental sociology, became the first president.

What is JAES?

The Japanese Association for Environmental Sociology (JAES) is a nonprofit membership organization dedicated to advancing the development of environmental sociology. JAES was founded in 1992 with 53
researchers taking part in its foundation. Now with 564 members (asof March 2019), JAES has become the largest environmental sociology
association around the Globe. JAES members come from a wide rangeof backgrounds: researchers, teachers, students and practitioners inmany fields. The Association holds semiannual seminars each spring
and autumn and publishes the Journal of Environmental Sociology, theworld’s first journal devoted especially to environmental sociology.

Semiannual Seminars andOther Activities

Reflecting the diversity of our members, the themes of recent seminars
include: eco-tourism and regeneration of community, new wave ofenvironmental movements, “commons” and the environment, citizen-

participation in the environmental policy-making process, renewable energy, organic farming, Minamata disease, nuclear disaster andevacuation, historic preservation and tourism, and forest conservation.
The seminars held each spring are well-known for their excursion programs: each provides its members the opportunity to discuss on site,namely, at the actual place of environmental disruption. The seminars
have been held in places such as Ashio copper mine, Lake Biwa, theWorld Heritage Shirakami Mountains, Minamata, Niigata, and a waste
disposal site in Nagano.
JAES places emphasis on communicating with foreign researchers
and associations abroad. JAES held the “International Symposium on
Environmental Problems in Asian Societies” in 1993, and the Association supported “Kyoto Environmental Sociology Conference 2001”
organized by Research Committee 24 of the International SociologicalAssociation. The International Relations Committee was founded in
2002 to promote networking especially among Asian societies. To date,
JAES hosted two international conferences (in Tokyo [2008] and Sendai [2015], both in Japan) and collaborated four (Beijin in 2007; Hsinchu, Taiwan in 2009; Bucheon, Korea in 2011; Nanjing, China in 2013;
Taipei, Taiwan in 2017; and Seoul, Korea in 2019).
JAES is also active in increasing interchanges with other fields of social sciences. Since 2000, JAES has co-hosted interdisciplinary symposium with two academic associations, the Society for Environmental
Economics and Policy Studies and the Japan Association for Environmental Law and Policy.

The Journal ofEnvironmental Sociology

The annual academic journal of JAES, the Journal of Environmental Sociology, was first published in 1995. The Journal covers a wide rangeof topics, just like the semiannual seminars, and each issue contains
special feature articles (most of which are written in Japanese withEnglish abstracts), as shown below:
No. 1 (1995)
No. 2 (1996)

Perspectives of Environmental Sociology
Fieldwork and Environmental Sociology

No. 4 (1998)
No. 5 (1999)
No. 6 (2000)

Environmental Movements and NPOs
Sociological Study on Environmental Regeneration(1) Viewpoints on the Environmental Destruction

No. 3 (1997)

No. 7 (2001)
No. 8 (2002)

No. 9 (2003)
No. 10 (2004)
No. 11 (2005)
No. 12 (2006)
No. 13 (2007)
No. 14 (2008)
No. 15 (2009)

No. 16 (2010)

Forests, River and Sea as Commons(2) The Significance of Waste Management Legislation and its Social
Impacts
Environmental Policy and Environmental Sociology
Toward a Sociology of Renewable Energy

Discourse toward Organic Farming and Vernacular Life Style
New Developments in Environmental Sociology
A Logic of Justice and Legitimacy about Environment
World Heritage and Environmental Sociology“Civic Research”: Its Possibilities and Problems
Rethinking the Coexistence with “Wildlife”(1) Environmental Sociology in the Age of Environmental Gover-nance(2) The Formation of Environmental Sociology in the East Asia
Disasters Studies: New Perspectives in Environmental Sociology

No. 17 (2011)
No. 18 (2012)

No. 19 (2013)
No. 20 (2014)
No. 21 (2015)
No. 22 (2017)
No. 23 (2017)
No. 24 (2018)

The Board of the JAES,
2019-2021

The Establishment of a Sound Material-Cycle Society and Environ-mental Sociology

Environmental Sociology and the Concept of “Damage”
Responding to a Severe Compound Disaster: Focusing on Sufferingand Harm
Breakthroughs in Environmental Sociology
The Scope of Environmental Sociology: Time in Environment/ Timein Society
Sustainability of Agriculture and the Environment
The Interaction between Humans and Nature
Where Environmental Sociology and “Social Movement” ResearchIntersect

INOUE Makoto (Waseda University)
President

HAMAMOTO Atsushi (Toyo University)
Secretary-General

OTSUKA Yoshiki (Tokyo City University)

Editor-in-Chief, the Journal of Environmental Sociology
CHINO Tsunehide (Shin’shu University)
Chair, Research Committee
HARAGUCHI Yayoi (Ibaraki University)
Chair, International Relations Committee
DAIMON Shin’ya (Kansai University)

Chair, Disaster and Nuclear Incident Committee
ADACHI Shigekatsu (Otemon University)
FUKUNAGA Mayumi (the University of Tokyo)
MARUYAMA Yasushi (Nagoya University)
NISHIKIDO Makoto (Hosei University)
SEKI Reiko (Rikkyo University)
TSUCHIYA Yuichiro (Kyoto University of Education)

For More Information

Office of the JAES

C/o International Academic Publishing Co., Ltd.
358-5 Yamabuki-cho, Shinjyuku-ku, Tokyo, 162-0801, Japan
Website: www.jaes.jp
E-mail: jaes-post@bunken.co.jp

Japanese names are given in Japanese order: family name first, followed by given name.
Copyright © October 2019 by the Japanese Association for Environmental Sociology.
Layout design by Dr. HORIKAWA Saburo (JAES/Hosei University).