Send message to Author

Paper short abstract

How do municipal governments in Japan cope with various types of debris, in addition to household waste, when natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods occur? While tracing their activities, this study pays particular attention to the central government’s underlying intention to assist them.

Paper long abstract

Municipal governments in Japan have traditionally managed daily waste for many years, even as decentralization has been developing since the 1990s. However, natural disasters in recent years, such as earthquakes and floods, have generated large quantities of debris. How do these governments cope with such debris, in addition to household waste, in case of emergency? By tracing their activities after the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, this article examines the idea of “state will,” which refers mainly to the central government’s efforts to reassert centralized control through several projects of Japan’s Ministry of the Environment, despite the ongoing decentralization process. The findings reveal that more attention should be paid to the hidden politics of environmental governance, as illustrated in this case.