Japan’s Transnational Environmental Policies

Rüdiger Kühr, born in 1970, is a political and social scientist with studies at the Universities of Osnabrück and Münster. He was a visiting fellow at the Hitotsubashi University (Japan), United Nations University (Japan) and Freie Universität of Berlin (Germany). He is Head of the United Nations University Institute for Sustainability and Peace (UNU-ISP), Operating Unit SCYCLE, which is focusing its work and activities on sustainable production, consumption and disposal.

• Contents: Japan’s transnational environmental policy through environmental technology transfer to Newly Industrializing Countries (NICs) in the 1990s – Challenges through growing transnationalization/globalization – Definitions of key terms such as environment, technology – Categorization of environmental technology – Environmental problems in NICs – Changing role of states – Academic discussion – Neo-realists and globalists – Methodic approach via actor analysis, policy cycle model and comparison with Germany.