Resource use and environmental management in Japan, 1890-1990

The aim of this article is to outline the history of resource use and environmental management in Japan since the 19th century. Japan has been widely perceived as giving a low priority to the environment and pursuing a "growth at all costs' strategy, but a major theme of the article is that in order to understand the history of environmental management in Japan it is necessary to consider the constraints under which economic development has taken place. The article traces the development of government policies for managing the environmental risks associated with economic growth