Comparative Legal Study on Water Law in Japan sand the United States-For Sound Environment of River Basins-

由于日本地处季风亚洲，其洪泛平原是在20世纪60年代和70年代开发的，因此经常遭受洪水的侵袭。此外，由于水稻种植很普遍，在夏季很难实现供需平衡。在经历了严重的水资源冲突之后，他们开始依赖于他们认为的灵丹妙药——水坝。但在日本面临严重财政赤字的情况下，大坝的副作用变得更加明显。该项目探索了四种可能的替代方案来改变行动过程；从控制洪水到减轻洪水造成的损害、调水、地下水的可持续利用、减轻对当地社区和生态系统的负面影响。在两年的项目期间，在设计调水和地下水可持续利用的法律制度方面取得了重大进展。

Since Japan is located in the Monsoon Asia and its flood plains have been developed in 1960s and 70s, it frequently suffers from flood. Also, because rice farming is common, it is difficult to manage supply-demand balance in the summer time. After experiencing severe water conflict, it had started relying on what they thought as a panacea, dams. But the side effects of dams have become more evident while Japan is facing severe financial deficit. This project explored four possible alternatives to change the course of actions ; from flood control to mitigation of damage from flood, water transfer, sustainable use of groundwater, mitigation of negative impacts to the local communities and the ecosystem. During two-year project period, significant progress has been made in designing legal system of water transfer and sustainable use of groundwater.