How environmental ethics affect the consumption–wellbeing relationship: evidence from Japan

Using data from an original large-scale survey conducted in Japan, this chapter investigates the relationship between consumption and subjective wellbeing. In order to engender the sustainable consumption advocated in the ongoing discourse on ecological footprints, planetary boundaries, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), current consumption levels in developed countries need to be re-examined. If there is acknowledgment that an increase in consumption is not related to an increase in the subjective wellbeing at least by people with high environmental ethics, rampant consumption can be mitigated. The estimation results show that although there is no satiation point concerning the consumption_wellbeing relationship for people in Japan on average, there are satiation points for people who have environmental ethics concerning ‘intergenerational equity’ or ‘irreversibility’. The results thus imply that environmental ethics is key to achieving sustainable consumption.