Eco-friendly Spirituality, Manmade disaster, and Environmental Policy in Japan

Persistent URL of this record https://hdl.handle.net/1887/75924

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International Studies (BA)

Debert, Awen (2019)

Eco-friendly Spirituality, Manmade disaster, and Environmental Policy in Japan

Bachelor thesis | International Studies (BA)

This paper proposes another axis of understanding for the Minamata case study by analyzing the philosophical intricacies of the Japanese culture in contrast with Japan's politics and industrial goals. Instead of offering a technical solution to such a far-reaching event, it looks at the hidden potential of Japanese cultural practices in transforming the way politics consider the priorities of human development and how local communities’ expectations can be met when their lifestyle is taken into consideration. In that sense, the Minamata incident reveals to be more than a local disaster but also to a larger extent the illustration of a societal and philosophical discordance.