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Does conflict matter? Spatial distribution of disposal sites in Japan

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Abstract

This study is an empirical investigation of the location of industrial waste disposal sites in Japan. We found some evidence of spatial concentration of industrial waste disposal sites in area with other waste-related facilities. In addition, we found a higher number of industrial waste disposal sites per capita in municipalities that had not experienced conflict relating to the construction of disposal sites. Our results suggest that companies may decide to locate disposal sites in areas in which other waste-related facilities already exist and/or where there is less citizen conflict over their construction. This would explain why there is a spatial concentration of unwanted facilities in some areas.

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Notes

  1. Japanese local government is divided into two tiers: prefectural governments and municipalities (cities, towns, and villages). The nation comprises 47 prefectures. The number of municipalities was 1718 in total as of April 2015.

  2. Shinkuma and Managi (2012) investigate the effect of final disposal cost on the rate of illegal disposal in Japan although their results suggest that it is statistically insignificant.

  3. The data on conflict related to construction plan of disposal sites are not readily available. For instance, according to the report of the Japanese Ministry of the Environment (1996), there were 221 conflicts related to waste disposal sites between 1990 and 1996. However, the data are at the country level rather than the municipality level, and it is not possible to distinguish conflicts over plans for industrial waste disposal sites from those over the operation of such sites.

  4. http://www.lic.or.jp/landinfo/. Accessed 16 Mar 2015.

  5. In Japan, a city is defined as a local municipality with more than 50,000 inhabitants, 60 % or more of which live in a central area.

  6. http://www.mlit.go.jp/river/sabo/link20.htm. Accessed 16 Mar 2015.

  7. The data on the amount of industrial waste generated at municipality level is unavailable.

  8. As a robustness check, we estimated our model using the number of disposal site per area as a dependent variable. The result is similar to that of the model using the number of disposal site per capita as a dependent variable.

  9. Aspatial Tobit models and Probit models are those that do not consider spatial correlations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Economics, Kobe University, Kobe, Japan

    Yuichi Ishimura & Kenji Takeuchi

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  1. Yuichi Ishimura
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  2. Kenji Takeuchi
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Correspondence to Kenji Takeuchi.

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Ishimura, Y., Takeuchi, K. Does conflict matter? Spatial distribution of disposal sites in Japan. Environ Econ Policy Stud 19, 99–120 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10018-015-0137-y

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