Protest and national politics

As the GE dilemma intensified, so did public complaints about the situation. At first, government and corporations made little response to the complaints. Institutional rejection of public complaints stirred up a national wave of environmental protest. The number of anti-pollution protests swelled during the 1960s, cresting in 1970 and 1973 (see Figure 3.1). Protest movements in Oita rose together with this wave. Anti-pollution protests sprang up throughout the prefecture. Grassroots movements struggled with the authorities and progrowth interest groups. Then countermovements entered the fray in support of growth. After a period of conflict, protests in Oita and the nation gradually cooled down but did not disappear. They continued to sputter through the 1980s and into the 1990s.

The peaks of the protest wave marked a political turning point. The Japanese government radically shifted its handling of the GE dilemma, producing its pollution miracle. Given other ACID societies' sluggish response to their own pollution dilemmas, why did Japan shift so suddenly to an effective pollution regime? As noted in Chapter 1, one of the principal debates in this field is whether or not environmental protest movements played an essential role in causing this shift. As a general principle, some theorists doubt that waves of protest have much effect on government policy (Tarrow, 1993). Other forces, such as international pressures and advancing knowledge, may have played a larger role, as Pharr, 1986 argued (Chapter 1).