Kaze, June 2020

Japan needs to empower civil society
Konoe FUJIMURAThe COVID-19 pandemic expanded globally in a short time, depressing
the economy, and our society. While appreciating those devoted workers including
medical people, I am asking myself if there is anything I can do as a long-time
advocator of a sustainable society.
Probably, we (our environmental NPO) should serve as a compass to show
the direction to be taken and keep on proposing a new way of life after thepandemic. Reviewing the pandemic experience, we could identify the real issuesof the current society and discuss among us how our future life should be. With
this in mind, we will continue the discussion to enhance the capacity of society inthe face of climate change as well as infection. We will make the COVID-19
experience a good opportunity to take an action toward empowered civil society.
So far, we have been discussing the role of civil society from theenvironmental viewpoint. Now through the corona pandemic, I came to believe
more firmly that we have to protect the life and property ourselves. We should notleave everything to politicians, government officials, or experts. Individual citizens
must face social issues together with their family members, co-workers, and themembers of their community.
However, I know civil society in Japan is still weak in its capacity. Of
course, a lot of individuals, groups, private companies, and local governments aremaking great efforts to save needy people, but such activities have not made civilsociety powerful enough. The weakness of civil society reflects in our slow actions
to combat environmental issues including the climate crisis.
Among various reasons behind the weakness of Japanese civil society, I
specifically pay attention to the lack of civic education. Historically, the generalpublic in Japan has been "excused" from public affairs forcing them to leaveeverything to the government. Consequently, Japanese people, in general, do notseem to be fully conscious of their social responsibilities.
As regards the future of humans, Prof. Yuval Noah Harari of the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem says that we may need to choose between a surveillancesociety and an empowered civil society, between an independent and nationalistic
state or a country open to international cooperation. To choose the right path andrealize civil society backed by international cooperation, he argues that thefollowing two attitudes are quite important for the general public: i) to select,from the sea of abundant information, reliable information with a sound scientificbasis, believe it, and put it into action, and ii) to watch political situation under
any circumstance and try to participate in politics.
In this context, the current situation in Japan looks far behind. For
example, NPOs, almost 20 years after the NPO law was enacted, have notobtained equal status with the government or business enterprise (market). The
government provides massive subsidies to private companies, but little support toNPOs except for social service organizations. This is a stark contrast with NPOs
under the EU where environmental NPOs are considered public entities. The EU
government regards environmental NPOs as a key partner to tackle theenvironmental issues, working together with the business associations. In Japan,
on the contrary, even the Ministry of Environment or politicians do not recognize
the importance of NPO activities.
Japan has been criticized by the international society for its backward
attitude in the combat against global warming. Japan has been a boat anker,exporting coal-fired power plants, and promoting nuclear power generation. It s ashame that Japan has not signed the treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons, and is
yet to ratify the Aarhus Convention.
The current government has decreased the credibility of government
information due to its loose document management and the foggy implementationof the disclosure system. They made science-based information a political issue,
and it is difficult to obtain credible information. There was a report that Japanesepeople s confidence in scientists and scientific information is extremely low
compared with that of other countries.

The COVIC-19 pandemic revealed that such social issues as infections, aswell as global warming and disparities, are not resolved only by the government
and the business. The involvement of individual citizens and the local community
is the key to the solution. To empower civil society and promote self-governing
ability, I think it is absolutely necessary that the Government of Japan should stepforward and renew the current education system.