Koichi Hasegawa
Biographic Data
| ID | 3787068 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Koichi Hasegawa |
| GIVEN NAMES | Koichi |
| FAMILY NAME | Hasegawa |
| SIGNATURE | HASEGAWA K |
| AFFILIATIONS | Tohoku University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8506-5986 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 25 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 19 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 25 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1995 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Research on Environmental Disruption and the Climate Crisis
日本の環境社会学の特質と喫緊の課題は何か.まず創始者・飯島伸子の歩みに即して検討する.公害問題の実証研究をとおして独自に注目した加害・被害,加害者・被害者,被害構造という視点は日本の環境社会学の出発点となった.環境問題に主眼をおき,質的な現地調査にもとづいて,加害被害関係とコミュニティレベルに照準をあて,当事者の視点を重視するのは,日本の環境社会学の大きな特質である.環境問題の社会学は加害論・被害論・運動論・政策論からなるが,環境経済学や環境法学に比較して弱体な政策論の彫琢は今後の大きな課題である
Net-zero carbon declarations by Japanese local governments
Sub-national governments are a crucial non-state actor for mitigating climate change. This importance has recently strengthened as increasing numbers of municipalities declare net-zero carbon emission goals to support the Paris Agreement, often well ahead of national governments. In Japan, net-zero declarations have also diffused widely, with nearly 800 declarations appearing in domino-like fashion over 2019-2022. To elucidate the factors that pr…
Japanese environmental sociology
Japanese environmental sociology has developed many original perspectives, including the social structure of victims, the benefit versus victimized zone theory, and life environmentalism. Developments in the field can be divided into three stages. The first, to 2001, is characterized by the early organizing of environmental sociologists, including the establishment of the Japanese Association for Environmental Sociology (JAES), and its accompanyi…
Social Structure of Victims
Nobuko Iijima (1938–2001), a pioneer of environmental sociology both in Japan and internationally, applied her notion of the social structure of victims to the multidimensional and multilayered nature of the damage caused by pollution. The physical damage done to victims is relatively easy to discern, but equally costly is the mental and social damage that occurs in the wake of the physical impact. Iijima attempted to describe the complex structu…
High‐Speed Transportation Pollution
High‐speed transportation pollution refers to a type of environmental pollution consisting of high levels of noise, vibration, and air pollution. These disturbances cause damage to daily life, such as sleep deprivation or the disturbance of conversation at home, as well as stress‐related health issues. High‐speed transportation is essential for highly industrialized urban life; it is a basic condition for developing efficient modern economies, gr…
Pollution Zones, Linear and Planar
The concept of linear and planar pollution zones refers to the geographic figurations of the polluted areas caused by, especially, high‐speed transportation pollution. Where bullet trains and high‐speed expressways create linear pollution zones, airplanes produce planar pollution zones along all their takeoff and landing routes. In the former case, the number of victims suffering severe noise pollution may be relatively limited – at most, several…
Structural Strains, Successive Transition of
The successive transition of structural strains refers to the mechanism and social process of the following vicious circle: a policy or a countermeasure aimed at solving one problem gives birth to another serious problem, and the solution of that problem results in the creation of yet another more serious one and finally reaches a dead end. In his research into the social impacts of the Tohoku and Joetsu bullet train line construction project, Ha…
Daily Life Pollution
“Daily life pollution” refers to the type of environmental contamination caused by the everyday life activities of ordinary citizens and consumers. In contrast to the pollution caused by industrial production processes, daily life pollution includes detergent pollution in rivers, lakes, or the ocean caused by washing clothes, and landfill and incineration pollution caused by excessive household garbage. Although the individual impact each citizen…
Information and Resource Processing Paradigm
Tamito Yoshida's notion of the information and resource processing paradigm was influenced by information theory, particularly Norbert Wiener's 1948 Cybernetics . The basic idea of Yoshida's general systems theory evolved originally from Wiener's work through generalizing of his logic. His central own hypothesis comprises the following: the natural world is divided into “non‐controlled nature,” “inorganic nature” such as the universe, and “contro…
Local Residents' Movements
Local residents' movements expanded greatly in Japan after the mid‐1950s. The term “residents” indicates the local inclusiveness of the movement: anyone who lives in the area, if they are interested in a local issue, can participate and no other qualification is required. In the Japanese context, local residents' movements are quite distinct from existing labor union movements and political movements led by political parties. Major characteristic…
Conflicting Climate Change Frames in a Global Field of Media Discourse
Reducing global emissions will require a global cosmopolitan culture built from detailed attention to conflicting national climate change frames (interpretations) in media discourse. The authors analyze the global field of media climate change discourse using 17 diverse cases and 131 frames. They find four main conflicting dimensions of difference: validity of climate science, scale of ecological risk, scale of climate politics, and support for m…
The Fukushima nuclear accident and Japan's civil society
The Fukushima nuclear accident raised important questions concerning Japan's civil society: first, what was the role of civil society prior to the accident; second, what were civil society's reactions to the accident; third, what impact has civil society had on Japan's nuclear policies following the accident. Focusing on societal, organizational, and local community-level activities, this article explores these questions analyzing documents and n…
Facing Nuclear Risks
This paper discusses the sociological lessons learnt from the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant accident that occurred on 11 March 2011. This disaster is the second largest nuclear accident after the Chernobyl accident. Meltdown and explosions occurred because of the hydrogen released from the damaged core. A large amount of radioactive materials has been released. Many people, around 150 000, are still in evacuation by government order or by their o…
Inequalities and Disparities in Globalised Asia
Tamito Yoshida
This paper outlines the life and academic accomplishments of the largely internationally unknown but foremost innovative and leading sociologist of Japan considered as the “unknown master” of Japanese sociology, Tamito Yoshida. (i) Emphasizing originality and creativity, Yoshida's success was free from the existing sociological frameworks and he liberated theoretical study from the yoke of historical perspectives that had long governed Japanese t…
Pollution Zones, Linear and Planar
The concepts of linear and planar pollution zones refer to the geographical figuration of the polluted area caused especially by high‐speed transportation pollution. Whereas bullet trains and high‐speed expressways create linear pollution zones 20–50 meters wide on each side along their routes, airplanes produce planar pollution zones along their takeoff and landing routes surrounding the airport. In the former case, the number of victims at any …
High‐Speed Transportation Pollution
High‐speed transportation pollution refers to a type of environmental pollution consisting of high levels of noise, vibration, and air pollution brought about by high‐speed transportation systems such as the airplane and airport, the “bullet” (super‐express) train, or the traffic expressway. These disturbances cause damage to daily life such as sleep deprivation or the disturbance of conversation at home, as well as stress‐related health issues l…
Structural Strains, Successive Transition of
The successive transition of structural strains refers to the mechanism and social process of the following vicious cycle: a policy or a countermeasure aimed at solving one problem gives birth to another serious problem, and the solution of that problem results in the creation of yet another more serious one and finally reaches a dead end. The first step in the wrong way leads into deep woods that are impossible to escape. In research into the so…
Local Residents' Movements
Local residents’ movements expanded greatly in Japan after the mid‐1950s. Their names – such as “students’ movements” and “women's movements” – designate types of participants. The term “residents” indicates the local inclusiveness of the movement: anyone who lives in the area, if they are interested in a local issue, can participate. No other qualification is required. People of any age beyond high school, including senior citizens, male or fema…
Information and Resource Processing Paradigm
Tamito Yoshida's notion of the information and resource processing paradigm was influenced by information theory, particularly Norbert Wiener's Cybernetics (1948). At first, Wiener was reluctant to relate his idea of cybernetic control to the social sciences, but he later came to apply the negative feedback process – the most basic principle of the cybernetic control mechanism – to organic bodies, human beings, and human society. The basic idea o…
The Effects of ‘Social Expectation’ on the Development of Civil Society in Japan
This paper proposes a theoretical explanation for the impact of ‘social expectation’ on the growth of civil society in Japan. Why has civil society developed as it has in Japan? Contrary to the image of Japan as a ‘strong and controlling’ nation-state, we find that private citizens—the non-governmental organization (NGO) leaders, scholars on community planning, and younger liberal politicians—set the conditions towards the growth of civil society…
Social Structure of Victims
Nobuko Iijima, a pioneer of environmental sociology both in Japan and internationally, applied her notion of the social structure of victims to the multidimensional and multi‐layered nature of the damage caused by pollution (Iijima 1976, 1979, 1984). The physical damage done to victims is relatively easy to discern, but this is only one aspect of pollution damage. Equally costly is the mental and social damage that occurs in the wake of the physi…
Volunteerism and the State in Japan
In 2006, close to 400,000 people in Japan participated in voluntary activities and more than 30,000 volunteer associations received a nationally certified status as non-profit organizations (NPOs). In 1985, only about 100,000 people counted as volunteers. These figures indicate not only a quantitative but also a qualitative change. Japan today is moving toward a borantia shakai or volunteer-oriented civil society, with particularly high rates of …
Global Climate Change and Japanese Nuclear Policy 1
Among advanced industrialized countries, only the Japanese government has a plan to construct an additional twenty nuclear power plant by 2010. Why does the government adhere so aggressively to a pro‐nuclear policy? Recently, the government has stressed nuclear power for global climate protection. This paper criticizes Japanese climate protection policy from a sociological point of view and searches the political and social background of the poli…
A Comparative Study of Social Movements in the Post‐Nuclear Energy Era in Japan and The United States
In contrast with skepticism in most western advanced countries, recent east Asian countries share pro‐nuclear energy policy. Using my scheme of “the enlarged political process model” and qualitative data from my case studies in Japan and the United States, this paper analyzes the main characteristics of the nuclear energy issues and citizens' movements in both countries. Four historical stages of anti‐nuclear energy movement in Japan are analyzed…
Conflicting Climate Change Frames in a Global Field of Media Discourse
Reducing global emissions will require a global cosmopolitan culture built from detailed attention to conflicting national climate change frames (interpretations) in media discourse. The authors analyze the global field of media climate change discourse using 17 diverse cases and 131 frames. They find four main conflicting dimensions of difference: validity of climate science, scale of ecological risk, scale of climate politics, and support for m…
The Effects of ‘Social Expectation’ on the Development of Civil Society in Japan
This paper proposes a theoretical explanation for the impact of ‘social expectation’ on the growth of civil society in Japan. Why has civil society developed as it has in Japan? Contrary to the image of Japan as a ‘strong and controlling’ nation-state, we find that private citizens—the non-governmental organization (NGO) leaders, scholars on community planning, and younger liberal politicians—set the conditions towards the growth of civil society…
The Fukushima nuclear accident and Japan's civil society
The Fukushima nuclear accident raised important questions concerning Japan's civil society: first, what was the role of civil society prior to the accident; second, what were civil society's reactions to the accident; third, what impact has civil society had on Japan's nuclear policies following the accident. Focusing on societal, organizational, and local community-level activities, this article explores these questions analyzing documents and n…
Net-zero carbon declarations by Japanese local governments
Sub-national governments are a crucial non-state actor for mitigating climate change. This importance has recently strengthened as increasing numbers of municipalities declare net-zero carbon emission goals to support the Paris Agreement, often well ahead of national governments. In Japan, net-zero declarations have also diffused widely, with nearly 800 declarations appearing in domino-like fashion over 2019-2022. To elucidate the factors that pr…
A Comparative Study of Social Movements in the Post‐Nuclear Energy Era in Japan and The United States
In contrast with skepticism in most western advanced countries, recent east Asian countries share pro‐nuclear energy policy. Using my scheme of “the enlarged political process model” and qualitative data from my case studies in Japan and the United States, this paper analyzes the main characteristics of the nuclear energy issues and citizens' movements in both countries. Four historical stages of anti‐nuclear energy movement in Japan are analyzed…
Global Climate Change and Japanese Nuclear Policy 1
Among advanced industrialized countries, only the Japanese government has a plan to construct an additional twenty nuclear power plant by 2010. Why does the government adhere so aggressively to a pro‐nuclear policy? Recently, the government has stressed nuclear power for global climate protection. This paper criticizes Japanese climate protection policy from a sociological point of view and searches the political and social background of the poli…
Pollution Zones, Linear and Planar
The concepts of linear and planar pollution zones refer to the geographical figuration of the polluted area caused especially by high‐speed transportation pollution. Whereas bullet trains and high‐speed expressways create linear pollution zones 20–50 meters wide on each side along their routes, airplanes produce planar pollution zones along their takeoff and landing routes surrounding the airport. In the former case, the number of victims at any …
High‐Speed Transportation Pollution
High‐speed transportation pollution refers to a type of environmental pollution consisting of high levels of noise, vibration, and air pollution brought about by high‐speed transportation systems such as the airplane and airport, the “bullet” (super‐express) train, or the traffic expressway. These disturbances cause damage to daily life such as sleep deprivation or the disturbance of conversation at home, as well as stress‐related health issues l…
Structural Strains, Successive Transition of
The successive transition of structural strains refers to the mechanism and social process of the following vicious cycle: a policy or a countermeasure aimed at solving one problem gives birth to another serious problem, and the solution of that problem results in the creation of yet another more serious one and finally reaches a dead end. The first step in the wrong way leads into deep woods that are impossible to escape. In research into the so…
Local Residents' Movements
Local residents’ movements expanded greatly in Japan after the mid‐1950s. Their names – such as “students’ movements” and “women's movements” – designate types of participants. The term “residents” indicates the local inclusiveness of the movement: anyone who lives in the area, if they are interested in a local issue, can participate. No other qualification is required. People of any age beyond high school, including senior citizens, male or fema…
Information and Resource Processing Paradigm
Tamito Yoshida's notion of the information and resource processing paradigm was influenced by information theory, particularly Norbert Wiener's Cybernetics (1948). At first, Wiener was reluctant to relate his idea of cybernetic control to the social sciences, but he later came to apply the negative feedback process – the most basic principle of the cybernetic control mechanism – to organic bodies, human beings, and human society. The basic idea o…
The Effects of ‘Social Expectation’ on the Development of Civil Society in Japan
This paper proposes a theoretical explanation for the impact of ‘social expectation’ on the growth of civil society in Japan. Why has civil society developed as it has in Japan? Contrary to the image of Japan as a ‘strong and controlling’ nation-state, we find that private citizens—the non-governmental organization (NGO) leaders, scholars on community planning, and younger liberal politicians—set the conditions towards the growth of civil society…
Social Structure of Victims
Nobuko Iijima, a pioneer of environmental sociology both in Japan and internationally, applied her notion of the social structure of victims to the multidimensional and multi‐layered nature of the damage caused by pollution (Iijima 1976, 1979, 1984). The physical damage done to victims is relatively easy to discern, but this is only one aspect of pollution damage. Equally costly is the mental and social damage that occurs in the wake of the physi…
Volunteerism and the State in Japan
In 2006, close to 400,000 people in Japan participated in voluntary activities and more than 30,000 volunteer associations received a nationally certified status as non-profit organizations (NPOs). In 1985, only about 100,000 people counted as volunteers. These figures indicate not only a quantitative but also a qualitative change. Japan today is moving toward a borantia shakai or volunteer-oriented civil society, with particularly high rates of …
Tamito Yoshida
This paper outlines the life and academic accomplishments of the largely internationally unknown but foremost innovative and leading sociologist of Japan considered as the “unknown master” of Japanese sociology, Tamito Yoshida. (i) Emphasizing originality and creativity, Yoshida's success was free from the existing sociological frameworks and he liberated theoretical study from the yoke of historical perspectives that had long governed Japanese t…
Inequalities and Disparities in Globalised Asia
Facing Nuclear Risks
This paper discusses the sociological lessons learnt from the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant accident that occurred on 11 March 2011. This disaster is the second largest nuclear accident after the Chernobyl accident. Meltdown and explosions occurred because of the hydrogen released from the damaged core. A large amount of radioactive materials has been released. Many people, around 150 000, are still in evacuation by government order or by their o…
The Fukushima nuclear accident and Japan's civil society
The Fukushima nuclear accident raised important questions concerning Japan's civil society: first, what was the role of civil society prior to the accident; second, what were civil society's reactions to the accident; third, what impact has civil society had on Japan's nuclear policies following the accident. Focusing on societal, organizational, and local community-level activities, this article explores these questions analyzing documents and n…
Conflicting Climate Change Frames in a Global Field of Media Discourse
Reducing global emissions will require a global cosmopolitan culture built from detailed attention to conflicting national climate change frames (interpretations) in media discourse. The authors analyze the global field of media climate change discourse using 17 diverse cases and 131 frames. They find four main conflicting dimensions of difference: validity of climate science, scale of ecological risk, scale of climate politics, and support for m…
Social Structure of Victims
Nobuko Iijima (1938–2001), a pioneer of environmental sociology both in Japan and internationally, applied her notion of the social structure of victims to the multidimensional and multilayered nature of the damage caused by pollution. The physical damage done to victims is relatively easy to discern, but equally costly is the mental and social damage that occurs in the wake of the physical impact. Iijima attempted to describe the complex structu…
High‐Speed Transportation Pollution
High‐speed transportation pollution refers to a type of environmental pollution consisting of high levels of noise, vibration, and air pollution. These disturbances cause damage to daily life, such as sleep deprivation or the disturbance of conversation at home, as well as stress‐related health issues. High‐speed transportation is essential for highly industrialized urban life; it is a basic condition for developing efficient modern economies, gr…
Pollution Zones, Linear and Planar
The concept of linear and planar pollution zones refers to the geographic figurations of the polluted areas caused by, especially, high‐speed transportation pollution. Where bullet trains and high‐speed expressways create linear pollution zones, airplanes produce planar pollution zones along all their takeoff and landing routes. In the former case, the number of victims suffering severe noise pollution may be relatively limited – at most, several…
Structural Strains, Successive Transition of
The successive transition of structural strains refers to the mechanism and social process of the following vicious circle: a policy or a countermeasure aimed at solving one problem gives birth to another serious problem, and the solution of that problem results in the creation of yet another more serious one and finally reaches a dead end. In his research into the social impacts of the Tohoku and Joetsu bullet train line construction project, Ha…
Daily Life Pollution
“Daily life pollution” refers to the type of environmental contamination caused by the everyday life activities of ordinary citizens and consumers. In contrast to the pollution caused by industrial production processes, daily life pollution includes detergent pollution in rivers, lakes, or the ocean caused by washing clothes, and landfill and incineration pollution caused by excessive household garbage. Although the individual impact each citizen…
Information and Resource Processing Paradigm
Tamito Yoshida's notion of the information and resource processing paradigm was influenced by information theory, particularly Norbert Wiener's 1948 Cybernetics . The basic idea of Yoshida's general systems theory evolved originally from Wiener's work through generalizing of his logic. His central own hypothesis comprises the following: the natural world is divided into “non‐controlled nature,” “inorganic nature” such as the universe, and “contro…
Local Residents' Movements
Local residents' movements expanded greatly in Japan after the mid‐1950s. The term “residents” indicates the local inclusiveness of the movement: anyone who lives in the area, if they are interested in a local issue, can participate and no other qualification is required. In the Japanese context, local residents' movements are quite distinct from existing labor union movements and political movements led by political parties. Major characteristic…
Japanese environmental sociology
Japanese environmental sociology has developed many original perspectives, including the social structure of victims, the benefit versus victimized zone theory, and life environmentalism. Developments in the field can be divided into three stages. The first, to 2001, is characterized by the early organizing of environmental sociologists, including the establishment of the Japanese Association for Environmental Sociology (JAES), and its accompanyi…
Net-zero carbon declarations by Japanese local governments
Sub-national governments are a crucial non-state actor for mitigating climate change. This importance has recently strengthened as increasing numbers of municipalities declare net-zero carbon emission goals to support the Paris Agreement, often well ahead of national governments. In Japan, net-zero declarations have also diffused widely, with nearly 800 declarations appearing in domino-like fashion over 2019-2022. To elucidate the factors that pr…
Research on Environmental Disruption and the Climate Crisis
日本の環境社会学の特質と喫緊の課題は何か.まず創始者・飯島伸子の歩みに即して検討する.公害問題の実証研究をとおして独自に注目した加害・被害,加害者・被害者,被害構造という視点は日本の環境社会学の出発点となった.環境問題に主眼をおき,質的な現地調査にもとづいて,加害被害関係とコミュニティレベルに照準をあて,当事者の視点を重視するのは,日本の環境社会学の大きな特質である.環境問題の社会学は加害論・被害論・運動論・政策論からなるが,環境経済学や環境法学に比較して弱体な政策論の彫琢は今後の大きな課題である
Political science (15 works) · Law (12 works) · Geography (11 works) · Engineering (10 works) · Politics (10 works) · Business (9 works) · Computer Science (9 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Economics (7 works) · Environmental Science (6 works)