Cooperation between Environmental NGOs and Large-Scale Enterprises in Japan - A Case Study

 Until the 1990s, the relationship between large-scale enterprises and environmental NGOs in Japan was characterized by strong opposition. However, in recent years we can observe increased bilateral environmental cooperation between these actors, although Japanese NGOs are still comparatively small and presumably weak. So, why and how do these actors cooperate?

My dissertation project looks into various examples of such bilateral interaction and investigates forms and reasons of such cooperative patterns. Based on a case study about the relationship between a large manufacturing enterprise and a regionally active environmental NGO, I will show in this presentation why and how such cooperation is initiated and how the characteristics of each actor are influencing the structure of interaction.

Susanne Brucksch (M.A.) is a Ph.D. candidate at the Seminar of Japanese Studies of Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany and currently a postgraduate grant student at the German Institute for Japanese Studies (DIJ), Tokyo.