IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlawss/v5y2016i2p19-d69006.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Structure of Local Groundwater Law for Sustainable Groundwater Policy in Japan

Author

Listed:
  • Sayaka K. Hori

    (Education and Research on Science and Technology in Public Sphere, Kyoto University, Yoshidahonmachi, Sakyo Ward, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan)

Abstract

Groundwater is extremely important to all societies. It provides in many places a reliable and ample supply of water for home use, irrigation, and industry. Japanese groundwater policy consists of complex laws and rules. The law governing groundwater nationally is inadequate. The main controversy has been that a river law exists only at a national level, whereas groundwater law does not exist in the national law of Japan. When local government faces problems with groundwater, the policy makers have to solve the problem following their local rules. Each local government solves problems case by case. Local government is used to obeying local rules and old traditions. Local common law becomes the local groundwater rule. Groundwater policy has recently been progressively promoted to an evolution of the local groundwater ordinances for sustainable groundwater conservation. This paper describes the complex legal framework of the related local groundwater policy and regulations under Japanese law. This is a bibliographic survey of Japanese groundwater laws and local groundwater ordinances. It is used to analyze the functions of local autonomy and the role of ordinances and to explain its changing functionalities of groundwater ordinances. Local ordinances are known as the strongest conservation legal network for sustainable groundwater policy in Japan. This is the first paper to try to explain the basic principles of the Japanese groundwater law for an international journal.

Suggested Citation

  • Sayaka K. Hori, 2016. "The Structure of Local Groundwater Law for Sustainable Groundwater Policy in Japan," Laws, MDPI, vol. 5(2), pages 1-14, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlawss:v:5:y:2016:i:2:p:19-:d:69006
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-471X/5/2/19/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-471X/5/2/19/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Matthew Zafonte & Paul Sabatier, 1998. "Shared Beliefs and Imposed Interdependencies as Determinants of Ally Networks in Overlapping Subsystems," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 10(4), pages 473-505, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Payán, Denise D. & Lewis, LaVonna B. & Cousineau, Michael R. & Nichol, Michael B., 2017. "Advocacy coalitions involved in California's menu labeling policy debate: Exploring coalition structure, policy beliefs, resources, and strategies," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 78-86.
    2. Metodi Sotirov & Georg Winkel, 2016. "Toward a cognitive theory of shifting coalitions and policy change: linking the advocacy coalition framework and cultural theory," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 49(2), pages 125-154, June.
    3. Adam Wellstead, 2017. "Plus ça Change, Plus C’est La Même Chose? A review of Paul Sabatier’s “An advocacy coalition framework of policy change and the role of policy-oriented learning therein”," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 50(4), pages 549-561, December.
    4. Harrinkari, Teemu & Katila, Pia & Karppinen, Heimo, 2016. "Stakeholder coalitions in forest politics: revision of Finnish Forest Act," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 30-37.
    5. Antje Witting, 2017. "Insights from ‘policy learning’ on how to enhance the use of evidence by policymakers," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 3(1), pages 1-9, December.
    6. Martha Isabel Gómez Lee, 2016. "Biodiversidad y políticas públicas: coaliciones de causa en las políticas de acceso a los recursos genéticos en Colombia," Books, Universidad Externado de Colombia, Facultad de Finanzas, Gobierno y Relaciones Internacionales, number 105, August.
    7. Sotirov, Metodi & Blum, Mareike & Storch, Sabine & Selter, Andy & Schraml, Ulrich, 2017. "Do forest policy actors learn through forward-thinking? Conflict and cooperation relating to the past, present and futures of sustainable forest management in Germany," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(P2), pages 256-268.
    8. Yi Liu & Wei Yang, 2019. "Leadership and Governance Tools for Village Sustainable Development in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-17, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jlawss:v:5:y:2016:i:2:p:19-:d:69006. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.