Sociological Study of Environmental NGO and Local Agenda

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In 1997 and 98, we surveyed on the role of environmental NGO and municipal government by mainly focusing on global warming and energy issues in major local core cities. We found that collaboration and partnership between local government and environmental local NGO is still slogan in many cases, concrete collaborative program is now under developing. As other examples in 1999, we surveyed by field work at small town or village area on trial of inducing renewable energy of wind and bio-mass power. These are paid attention to utilizing of minus image of strong wind, waste of timber business or excreta of farming. At Tokai village, the center of nuclear energy development in the country, the Japan's worst nuclear power accident has occurred in September, 1999. We conducted a questionnaire survey of local residents in order to understand the extent of mental and physical damage to local residents and the effects on their lives. The main results were : (1) there were many people, a number exceeding our expectation, who experienced languid feelings along with skin irritation on the day of the accident and shortly after or expressed mental symptoms such as anxiety and terror against the scene of the accident ; (2) strong anxiety over the future effects from radiation ; (3) on one hand, over 90 % of the respondents hold the then Science and Technology Agency highly responsible ; (4) but the responses taken by Tokai Village and the Mayor, Tatsuya Murakami, are highly rated ; (5) on one hand, about 2/3 of the residents have become critical of nuclear power ; (6) but 44.9 % see Tokai Village's future as "coexisting with the nuclear industry" and only 18.2 % see "village development centered on industries other than nuclear" as a future for Tokai Village.