Development of legal theory for environment protection and remedy for victims in Japan

This paper argues how Japanese law and jurisprudence contributed to relieve grievance of victims in environmental pollution caused by economic activities. Japan has experienced severe environmental pollution along with its economic growth since the 19th century. However, the grievance of pollution victims had been almost ignored. In the late 1960s, victims began court struggle to recover their right to life. Also, the court and the government addressed this problem seriously. Remarkable progress is the series of judicial decision regarding the most serious pollution cases, and those decisions devised several significant legal theories which mitigate the difficulty of pollution victims in challenging against polluting companies. Now, economic activities of the industrial company are strictly regulated by law which put a priority on people's life and health to companies' economic rights. Even though it, "public interest" are still used as a reason to limit peoples' rights to healthy life.