JAPAN QUARTERY VoL.XXV No.1 January-March 1978, ASAHISHINBUN, Tokyo
Coastline Conservation-Establishment of
Common Tide land Use RightsKikara KeikichiJAPAN QUARTERY VoL.XXV No.1 page 43 JAPAN is an island country,surrounded in all four directions by the sea. It has a coast line of 26,500 kilometers, the third longest coast line in the world, with the Soviet Union and Australia in first and second place. But durng the past few years, Japan's coast- line has experienced great and suddenal- terations. During the latter part of the sixties, Japan began to support a high econoic growth policy. Under this policy, industrial land development was vigorously encouraged throughout the country, with precedence over all else. Much of the natural coastline was filled in to provide reclaimed land for the constrction of factories, harbors and roads. The actual extent of the situation thus created was brought to light by means of a natural environment preservation investigation of the islands of Japan carried out by the Environ- ment Agency in 1973. This investigation, commonly known as the National Green Condition Investigation, re- vealed that 21.2 percent or 5,650 kilometers of the nation's coastline has been converted to reclaimed land, and that another 19.2 percent or 5,060 kilometers has been altered in one way or another transforming it into a seminatural state.This means that only 58.6 percent or state.Thismeansthatonly58.6percentor 15,827 kilometers of Japan' s coastline still remains in its pure natural state. Thus nearly half of the coastline of Japan has been deprived of its true nature, and in the area of such metropolitan centers as those around Tokyo Bay and Osaka Bay, and such industrial centers as Ise Bay and the Seto Inland Sea, there is very little natural beach still remaining. This unbridled destruction and alteration of the coastline in Japan can be attributed to the following three causes. First, the national government and the provincial self-governing bodies that own the coastline had no clear policy for the conserva- tion of the coastline. No plan had been established to determine which parts of Japan's national coastline should be left in its natural state and which should be utilized for development. Second, due to the failure of the Goven- ment's land policies, land prices skyrocketed to an extent never before experienced any- where else in the entire world. This made it most dificult to find suitable land in the in- terior for the constructing of new factory complexes. Thus it became much less ex- pensive to reclaim land along the coastline to provide sites for new factories, and for this reason, the provincial self-governing bodies which vied in enticing factories tried eagerly
Coastline Conservation-Establishment ofCommon Tide land Use RightsJAPAN QUARTERY VoL.XXV No.1 page 44 to reclaim land on their coastlines. Third, since Japanese industry has the special characteristic of importing raw ma- terials from abroad and using them to manu- facture merchandise which is then exported for sale in foreign countries, having factories on the coastline makes it far simpler to unload the raw materials and load the finished prod- ucts and also results in far smaller transport- ing expenses than in the case of inland lo_ cation of factories. This tendency was fostered by a bill which was passed in 1921 known as the Law for Reclaiming of Public Water Surface. Ac- cording to this law, the only people holding rights to the sea area invoIved in reclaiming are fishermen whose work is connected direct- ly with the sea. People of the interior whose lives are made richer by the sea and its prod- ucts are not included. Thus any provincial self-govening body or enterprise wishing to reclaim offshore sea areas is required only to pay compensation to the fishermen involved and need not even gain the permission of resi- dents of the interior. Also in 1950, harbor laws and fishing port laws were established to facilitate the construction of public harbors and wharves. On the other hand, laws for the preservation of the coastline are most inadequate. For instance, the Natural Park Law only provides for limitations on alterations of the natural environment within the boundaries of already established National Parks. There are no general laws for the preservation of the coast- line. For instance, in the case of the Seto Inland Sea, famous throughout the world for the beauty of its thousands of tiny islands, so many reclamation projects had been carried out during the past decade that serious problems of water pollution and environment destruction began to arise, that in 1973 a special law was established for the preserva- tion of the environment of the Seto Inland Sea which put legal limitations on future reclama- tion projects for the frst time. During the last half of the sixties, there was a sudden increase in coastline alterations through reclamation and the construction of harbors. More and more people throughout the country began to feel concern for the problems thus created. It was during the last half of the sixties that the bird-lovers through- out the nation began to band together to protest the reclaiming of tidelands due to the fact that it was depriving such migratory birds as snipes and plovers of their natural habitat. They pointed out that the Japanese Govern- ment had signed a treaty with America, the Soviet Union, and Australia for the protttion of migratory birds, and they maintained that Japan has an international obligation to pre- serve the tidelands as the natural habitat of these migratory birds. As a result, a man-made tideland was de- veloped on a portion of the reclaimed land called Shinhama Tideland in Tokyo Bay. However, a man-made tideland is no more than a man-made facility, and is not the same as natural tidelands. The All-Japan Nature Preservation Association, a liaison body of people's movement organizations, emphasizes as their main policy the preservation of natural tidelands and the natural coastline. These general conditions gave birth to the concept ofgCommon Tideland Use Rjghts," to provide for the protection of the coastline and the return of its use to the citizens of the nation. This gave rise to a wide-range peo- ple's movement. ThisgCommon Tideland Use Rights" movement began in 1973 among the citizens of Takasago, a city in Hyogo Pre- fecture that faces the Seto Inland Sea. It all started in the following mamer. The people began to feel serious concern when it was determined that their harbor had been polluted by PCB (poly-chloride-bifenil) found in the waste materials discharged from the Kanegafuchi Chemical Factory in a sea- side industrial complex. On Noveober 11 1973, a meeting of citizens was held in Taka- sago to lodge complaints against pollution. They discussed the contamination of the sea. They bemoaned the fact that not only had
Coastline Conservation-Establishment ofCommon Tide land Use RightsJAPAN QUARTERY VoL.XXV No.1 page 4T the sea water been contaminated, but that there was also no longer any white sand on the beaches, because all the beaches had been reclaimed and hardened with concrete, and no trespassing signs had been posted by the factories that had taken possession of them. All agreed that the situation had become too terible to be borne any longer without protest. The beautiful scenery of the area had been famous throughout Japan for centuries past, and is described in the equally famous Noh drama titled gTakasago.h All this beautiful scenery had been converted into reclaimed land by the construction of the seaside in- dustrial area by means of a gigantic project that had been initiated in 1961. An old man recalled the days when he would go out to collect firewood on the beach after a storm. A mother voiced pity for the children of today who must swim in their school pools rather than in the clean sea water on the natural beaches as had been possible in the past. At the same meeting, Takasaki Hiroshi, ownerand manager of a training school in the city,spoke saying that since people who live in mountain and forest areas have been given Comoon Mountain and Forest Use Rights for the protection of their natural resources, the people living near the sea should also be given similar rights for the common use of the tideland. He went on to propose that this be calledgCommon Tideland Use Rights.h These words of Mr.Takasaki provided a catch phrase under which all the people who loved the sea and the beach gathered to form a concrete movement to establish anew their common Tideland Use Rights. This concept was thus not created by scholars at their desks, but by the grass-roots people who found their own lives threatened by the dangers of pollution. Very soon the Association for the Promo- tion of Common Tideland Use Rights for Takasago was established, Its 75 founding members included the owner of the candy store in front of the station, movers, barbers, liquor store owners, management consultants, high school teachers, and office workers who liked to fish. These people from a wide variety of all walks of life gathered together to research the history of the beaches of Taka- sago, to write down the memories of the old People in the area, and to investigate the actual situation in terms of the destruction of the environment. These nameless people took up the concrete problems of the area in which they themselves live. They carried out actual field investigation and thought over the problems carefully, and came up with a set of universal rights concerning the relation- ship between human life and the coastline. This association, headed by Takasaki Hiro- shi who coined the terogCommon Tideland Use Rights,hcollected the memories of the people of the area and published a book titled gOne Hundred Witnesses - The Sea of Takasago Past and Present.h This book is a
Coastline Conservation-Establishment ofCommon Tide land Use RightsJAPAN QUARTERY VoL.XXV No.1 page 46 valuable record of the Common Tideland Use Customs and Practices of the past, related by means of the memories of the head priest of the Takasago Shrine, the vice-principal of the junior high schooI, People who used to have tea-stalls on the beach and many others whose lives were spent on the beaches and in the tidelands of Takasago. Numerous people joined the movement as a result of their telling of their sorrow at the loss of the beaches of their home town for inclusion in this book. The pines of Takasago, immortalized in the classical Noh theater of Japan for centuries past, are now beginning to die amidst the poisonous gas fumes emitted from the fac- tories of the seaside industrial area. The smokestacks of the industrial complex make up the view one now gets when standing in frot of the gate of the shrine. It is thought that the present environment destruction problems must be considered from the three viewpoints of pollution, destruction of nature, anddestmctionofthehistorOcalenvironment, and the city of Takasago is an exampIe of the destructive force of modern gprogresshon all three counts. The destruction of the coastline is today in evidence throughout Japan. For example, the beauty of Tago Inlet in Shizuoka Prefec- ture, the praises of which are sung in Japan's oldest collection of poems known as the Manyoshu,was destroyed when it was dug up to construct a new harbor in the late 1950s. Also, the 400,000 black pines of the shelter belt planted in the city of Sakata in Yamagata Prefecture during the Edo Period more than 200 years ago were felled to make way for the building of factories and a harbor. These destructive projects were carried out at about the same time that the beaches of Takasago were filled in with con- crete for the building of factories. And what is the result ? Tago Inlet, where one could in the past enjoy the beauty of the sea and the beach and the great Mount Fuji, has been tranformed into Japan's most polluted area due to the sludge and air con- tamination produced by the waste from the paper factory now in operation there. And the famous pine forest nearby is dying at a fast rate.For this reason, the people of the area, fearing damage from high tides, cut down the forest of green pines and built a huge concrete breakwater, which they have nicqamedgThe Great Wall of China.hThe farmers of Sakata now face similar problems, for with their precious shelter-belt cut down, they suffer great damage from the strong winds from the Japan Sea, and on top of this, they are forced to breath the gas fumes from the new factories built there. In this way, the beautiful coastline of Japan has been carelessly filled in, destroying some of Japaan's most gorgeous natural scenery, as we have seen in the examples of Takasago, Tago Inlet, and Sakata. In these areas, the price of shipping has shown a sudden increase, resulting in unusuaI growth for Japan's GNP. But while it has produced this sort of calculable results, it has proved to be an uncalculable detriment to the amenity of the daily lives of the peopleo of Japan by depriving them of sand beaches, the sound of the wind in the pines, the smell of the sea in the air, and all the memories of child- hood and the sea that are held dear by so many of the people of Japan. The Environment Committee of the OECD held a conference in Tokyo in November 1976 to review the policies of the Japanese Govern- ment. This conferene found that the Japa- nese Government is indeed showing progress in the fight against pollution, but that its ef- forts are far from satisfactory in the fight for preservation of the environment. In other words, during the past few years, much has been done in terms of countermeasures against air and water pollution, but policies for the protection and creation of naturaI amenity have been almost entirely forgotten. The movement for Common Tideland Use Rjghts is for the very purpose of regaining a sense of vaIue for amenity in terms of the
Coastline Conservation-Establishment ofCommon Tide land Use RightsJAPAN QUARTERY VoL.XXV No.1 page 47 coasthne of Japan. The insistence on Common Tideland Use Rights was a fresh flash of lightning in the dark night for people throughout the country who had regretted the destruction of the coastline, and people from all areas of Japan began to join the movement in great numbers. This movement provides a strong weapon for those people who had already been fighting for preservation of the coastline in protests against the building of such facilities as thermoelectric power plants, atomic energy Power plants, and petroleum storage bases (CTS). Amidst all this, a conference was held in Tokyo in February 1975 titledgThe Assembly for Bringing the Sea Back to Life and Oppos- ing Industrial Complexes.h At this confer- ence agComoon Tideland Use Rights Declarationhwas written for the purpose of Promoting citizens'movements for these rights throughout the entire nation. This conference was a continuation of the assembly that had been held the previous year in De- cember by the fishermen and citizens of the nation to protest the huge amounts of crude oil that had flowed into the Seto Inland Sea from the Mizushima Industrial Complex in Okayama Prefecture, contaminating the water there. Since thisgCommon Tideland Use Rights Declarationhis such an epoch-making his- torical document in the fight for preservation of the Japanese coastline, I wish to introduce its entire text here. gFrom ancient times, the sea has belonged to the people. Their rights tostroll along the beaches, enjoy the scenery, fish, and swim in its waters, or draw water, collect driftwood, dig shellfish, and collect seaweed to earn their daily bread are far older rights than the law that allows individuals to possess land. And it is thought that the rights of common use of shelter-belt forests along the coastline are equally as ancient. We hereby name these rights our Common Tideland Use Rights We believe that the Common Tideland Use Rights are necessary elements for a good environment which is guaranteed to the people by the Constitution of Japan. In recent years, as a part of the high growth policy of the Government, the building of industrial complexes has been vigorously pro- moted. For this purpose, not only have large stretches of Japan's coastline been con- verted into reclaimed land, destroying large swaths of nature, but industrial factories have been built right down to the edge of the water as well, totally violating the people's Common Tideland Use Rights. All kinds of pollu- tion have emanated from these factories. We hereby declare our Common Tideland Use Rights as the basis for our movement to eradicate pollution, to protect the natural environment from destruction, and to restore the natural environment that has been harmed. This declaration found strong support throughout the nation, and in August 1976, the first Common Tideland Use Rights Syo- posium was held in Kobe. Those attending included not only representatives from nature preservation and antipollution citizens' or- ganizations, fishery groups, angling groups, and sea bathing groups, but legal scholars, lawyers, ethnoIogists, land problem research- ers, and jounalists as well. The large variety attending pointed out once more just how important the problems of the sea and the coastline have become to thinking people. and it also illustrated just how broadly the ideas concerning Common Tideland Use Rights have spread and just how deep the relationship between these problems and civilization in general is. The symposium decided on the following two points as its objectives. The first was to deepen the theory of Common Tideland Use Rights in a scientific manner and to utilize the results of such a study as a source of energy for the strengthening and the support of the resolve of citizens' movements for the pre- servation of the coastline. The second was to provide direction to movements toward the
Coastline Conservation-Establishment ofCommon Tide land Use RightsJAPAN QUARTERY VoL.XXV No.1 page 48 establishment of laws to eliminate the destruc- tion of the coastline and insure its future preservation. As is to be exptted from the variety of backgrounds represented among its participants, the points brought up for dis- cussion covered an extremely broad range of topics. For instance, an ethnologist made clear at this symposium the relationship of the Japanese race and the sea as an island people since the ancient past and the way of thinking of the people over the centuries concerning the coastIine and their way of life in relation to that coastline. The beach is the plae where the rhythms of nature can best be felt. The tide comes in and goes out. Day breaks and evening darkens. The things brought in by the tide change from season to season as do the fish in the sea. It is the beach where man can best feel in the workings of his own body and in his breathing that he is indeed a part of organic nature. These were the things the ethnologist explained. For these reasons it is said that in Okinawa, the farthest south of the islands of Japan, one can see people carrying on the custom of facing the sea to pray to the gods that have always been believed to abide on its far side even today. The beach is the place where man expresses his hope and his fear of those things that come to him from beyond the sea. The insistence on Common Tideland Use Rights comes from a sense of values that is based on this kind of traditional Japanese concepts and subliminal consciousness con- cerning the coastline. And thus it is pre- dicted that these aspects will contribute to a deeply rooted and long lasting movement among the people of apan. The legal scholars and lawyers who partici- pated in the symposium discussed the legal character of Common Tideland Use Rights and its theoretical basis. They determined that these rights are a part of the general environmental rights and that due to the natural characteristics of Japan, laws should be established to protect these rights. They expressed their intent to bring to reality laws giving individuals and groups the right to bring cases to court against acts of environ- mental destruction, similar to the Environ. ment Protection Law of Michigan State, U.S., or the Nature Conservation Law of Frant. Reports were made by jounalists consern- ing the history and present condition of citizens' movements and government admin- istration on the problem of coastline preser- vation in foreign countries, esppecially Britain and the United Stats. An example was given of the importance placed on maintenance of coastlines and rural districts in a British Government white paper titledgRegula- tions on Land Usehthat was made public in 1944 during the Second World War. Also reports were made on the action taken by the Ministry of Housing and Local Government (consolidated with the Environment Ministry in1970) in I963 in the form of a communica- tion from the minister, to cary out preserva- tion development of the coastline,sent to the Provincial planning departments responsible for control of the coastline. Also a series of regional conferences were held by the Countryside Commission in 1966 and 1967 in order to discover ways and means to carrIy out preservation and development of the coastline. The findings of these confer- ences hve been published under the title, gThe Coastal Heritage - Coastal Preservation and Development; Countryside Commission HMS0.h And the citizens of Britain are also active in work for the preservation of their coastline. Around the end of the 19th century, wom- en's movement worker Octavia Hill and two other citizens formed the National Trust for the purpose of preserving British traditional, historical,and natural environment. They collected funds from the nation's citizens to Purchase historical sites, old castles,churches, historical towns, farms and ranches in order to preserve them for posterity. Coastline sections were also purchased by this move- ment. In 1965 a new contribution campaign
Coastline Conservation-Establishment ofCommon Tide land Use RightsJAPAN QUARTERY VoL.XXV No.1 page 49 was begun for the special preservatino of the coastline, called Enterprise Neptune. The Duke of Edinburgh heads this cam- paign which takes its name from the Roman god of the sea. The first objective was to collect two million pounds. The campaign was a sutess and the objective of two million pounds was reached in November 1973. With this money, 192 miles of beautiful coastline was purchased. Added to the amount of coastline that has been purchased by preservation movements during the past 70 years, 350 miles of coastline are now being preserved. This figure represents more than a third of the entire length of the most beauti- ful coastline of England and Wales, However, this still does not fully satisfy the demands of the preservation policy. Contributions are at present being collected to buy an additional 100 miles of coastline. As a result of scholarly discussion and talks between experts and general citizens, Japan's symposium resolved to further develop the movement in the direction of abolishing the law for reclaiming public water surfaces and of establishing new basic laws for preser- vation and protection of the natural coastline. Demands have been made for abolition of the Iaw for reclaiming public water surfaces on the grounds that it robs the people of their rights. The movement is also insisting that basic coastline preservation laws be passed to provide such basic principles as preserva- tion and free use of beaches, abolition of geographical alterations, prevention of con- tamination of beaches and sea water, and establishment of citizens' committees to act as environmental watchdogs, And it was further decided to demand that all reclama- tion projects be stopped until such laws and regulations are passed and put into efect. Much praise was given by the representa- tives at Japan's symposium to the British people whose work to preserve and protect the historical and natural environment of their country shows true patriotism. And even though Britain and Japan are on oppo- site sides of the Eurasian continent, they are both island countries surrounded by the sea. Thus the Japanese could not help but feel great respect for the British people who recog- nized the importance of their coastline long before destruction and pollution had begun and took steps to preserve its natural beauty. In Japan, citizens' movements against destruction of nature began after destructive development had already gotten well under way. All those attending the symposium agreed that even though they were quite late, it is necessary to bring about a citizens' move- ment in Japan similar to Britain's National Trust. It was decided to carry out a Japa- nese style Enterprise Neptune, and a prepara- tory organization was created for that pur- pose. General anglers are showing a deep interest in the Common Tideland Use Rights move- ment. They had always enjoyed fishing on the beach until suddenly without even con- sulting with them, big enterprise moved in to fill in those beaches and build factories. Since these factories refused to allow the general public to enter their grounds, the anglers lost their fishing beaches. They lost the means to satisfy their desire to fish. These people banded together in both Taka- sago and Tokyo to hold fish pole demon- strations for Comoon TideIand Use Rights. Anglers joined with professional fishermen to fight for these rights and the movement was thus strengthened. Amongf ishermen, there are two groups. 0ne group gave up their work of fishing and their rights and accepted compensation from the factories. The stond group flatly refused compensation and insisted that they be given back the sea. They are demanding that the factories clean up the sea and return it to its natural state of beauty. These fishermen have joined the movement for Common Tideland Use Rights. The islands of Japan are constantly washed anew by the Black Current from the south seas and the Kurile Current from the north. The people of Japan have always needed the
Coastline Conservation-Establishment ofCommon Tide land Use RightsJAPAN QUARTERY VoL.XXV No.1 page 50 sea as much as they do the air they beath. but due to this yery fact,they have tended to forget the importance of preserving it. But as more and more of the coastline was filled in to provide reclaimed land for the high growth policies, the people began to realize that their windows to the open sea were being closed one after another. It is only natural that if one has been living in a house with plenty of windows that let in the sunshine and fresh air and suddenly those windows are all closed and darkened, one will find theat house uncomfortable and unpleasant to live in. The people of Japan began to demand that their windows be reopened and the fresh air let flow in. The Common Tideland Use Rights movement is for the purpose of making the environment comfortable and pleasant to live in once more - to bring amenity back into the lives of the people and to establish their right to a good environment.