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Japan Professional Associations and Citizen and Consumer Movements
Physicians, dentists, lawyers, academics, and other
professionals organized associations for the exchange of
knowledge,
supervision of professional activities, and influence
government
policy, like those found in other developed countries. The
Japan
Medical Association has used its influence to preserve a
highly
profitable system in which physicians, rather than
pharmacists,
sell prescription drugs.
Citizens and consumer movements, which became prominent
during
the 1960s and 1970s, were organized around issues relating
to the
quality of life, the protection of the environment from
industrial
pollution, and the safety (although not the cost) of
consumer
goods. In the late 1960s, industrial pollution, symbolized
by the
suffering of victims of mercury poisoning caused by the
pollution
of Minamata Bay in Kumamoto Prefecture by a chemical
company, was
viewed as a national crisis. The Sato government
responded by
establishing the Environmental Agency in the Office of the
Prime
Minister in 1970, instituting tough penalties for
polluters, and
extending compensation to the victims of pollution.
Environmental
issues continue to be the focus of intense local activity.
In the
early 1990s, communities on Ishigaki Island in Okinawa
Prefecture
were divided over whether to construct a new airport to
handle
wide-bodied aircraft on land reclaimed from the sea.
Supporters
viewed the project as essential to the island's tourist
development, while opponents claimed that construction
would
destroy offshore colonies of rare blue coral and would
ruin the
local fishing industry. Another environmental issue in
many parts
of Japan was the use of powerful chemicals on golf
courses, which
in some cases harmed nearby residents
(see Pollution
, ch.
2).
Women's groups are in the forefront of the consumer
movement.
They include the National Federation of Regional Women's
Associations, the Housewives Association, and the National
Association of Consumer Cooperatives. Their activities
depend on
the support of neighborhood women's associations, the
women's
sections of local agricultural and fishing cooperatives,
and
government-sponsored consumer education groups. Although
boycotts
have been organized against companies making products that
the
groups viewed as dangerous (for example, canned foods
containing
carcinogenic cyclamates), they do not, for the most part,
demand
lower prices for food or other goods. In tandem with
agricultural
interests, consumer groups oppose increased food imports
on the
grounds that the supply is unpredictable and likely laced
with
dangerous additives.
Data as of January 1994
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