A Sustainable Society without Lowering Living Standards? 2005 Public Opinion Poll on Environment

The Japanese government's Cabinet Office conducted a poll on environmental issues in September 2005, with the aim of understanding public awareness about environmental issues involving an initiative to promote the 3R (reduce, reuse and recycle) principles and vehicle-related issues. A total of 3,000 adults over 20 years old nationwide were chosen for the survey and 1,896 valid responses (63.2 percent) were received.

In answer to questions about environmental issues, 73.4 percent of the respondents replied that they presently cooperate with sorted collection of used paper, milk cartons, plastic bottles and cans as an environmental protection activity at home. As for future environmental protection activities, 64.8 percent of the respondents said they plan to contrive or make efforts in their daily life, although only 15 percent answered that they plan to actively participate in community-level activities.

Meanwhile, 62.8 percent of the respondents answered that the current lifestyle of mass production, mass consumption and mass disposal is the biggest cause of waste. On the other hand, many respondents replied that in establishing a sustainable society, reusing or recycling waste should be actively promoted while maintaining the current standard of living in a context of continued mass production and mass consumption. These responses reflected both the ideal and the real.

Asked about banning free distribution of shopping bags, 55.1 percent of the respondents supported the idea, while 86.7 percent said they would cooperate with programs calling for voluntary restraints on the use of private vehicles or with traffic restrictions if these requests were based on preventing environmental pollution and global warming.



Posted: 2006/04/27 03:16:29 PM
Japanese version