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Localizing Public Dispute Resolution in Japan: Lessons from Experiments with Deliberative Policy-Making By

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Localizing Public Dispute Resolution in Japan: Lessons from Experiments with Deliberative Policy-Making By Localizing Public Dispute Resolution in Japan: Lessons from experiments with deliberative policy-making by Masahiro Matsuura Master in City Planning Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1998 B. Eng. Civil Engineering University of Tokyo, 1996 Submitted to the Department of Urban Studies and Planning in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Urban and Regional Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology September 2006 © 2006 Masahiro Matsuura. All rights reserved. The author hereby grants to MIT permission to reproduce and to distribute publicly paper and electronic copies of this thesis document in whole or in part in any medium now known or hereafter created. Signature of author: Dep artment of Urban Studies and Planning June 27, 2006 Certified by: Lawrence E. Susskind Ford Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning, Thesis Supervisor Accepted by: Frank Levy, Daniel Rose Professor of Urban Economics, Chair, Ph.D. Committee 2 Localizing Public Dispute Resolution in Japan: Lessons from experiments with deliberative policy-making by Masahiro Matsuura Submitted to the Department of Urban Studies and Planning on August 11, 2006 in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Urban and Regional Planning ABSTRACT Can consensus building processes, as practiced in the US, be used to resolve infrastructure disputes in Japan? Since the 1990s, proposals to construct highways, dams, ports and airports, railways, as well as to redevelop neighborhoods, have been opposed by a wide range of stakeholders. In response, there is a growing interest among Japanese practitioners in using consensus building processes, as practiced in the US, in order to resolve infrastructure disputes. Scholars and practitioners in the field of negotiation and dispute resolution, as well as policy transfer theorists, have raised concerns about cross-border transfers by referring to a variety of contextual differences between the “importing” and “exporting” countries. This dissertation investigates the relationship between the context and the introduction of consensus building processes from two perspectives: the adaptation of consensus building processes for the Japanese context and the organizational changes that seem to be required to allow processes from the US to work in Japan. Without process adaptation and organizational change, consensus building processes are unlikely to be helpful in resolving infrastructure disputes in Japan, considering the breadth and depth of the contextual differences—in organizational, normative, and regulative realms—between Japan and the United States. The Japanese context for infrastructure planning was investigated through in-depth interviews with 40 practitioners in Japan. In order to explore possible strategies for adaptation and organizational change, I have closely observed an 18-month pilot test of a consensus building process for road intersection improvements in Tokushima, Japan as an instance of adaptation and organizational change. My close observation of this experiment identified a range of creative adaptation. Based on these observations, I argue that process adaptation and organizational change must occur simultaneously when consensus building processes are transferred to a foreign location. Dissertation supervisor: Lawrence E. Susskind Title: Ford Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning 3 (This page is intentionally left blank.) 4 Table of Contents Introduction................................................................................................... 11 Learning from abroad: its pitfalls.................................................................................................16 Process adaptation and organizational change .............................................................................18 The site: improving the Kita-josanjima Intersection....................................................................20 Organization of this dissertation...................................................................................................22 Chapter 1: Difficulties of Infrastructure Planning in Japan.................... 25 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................25 Historical context: Before World War II......................................................................................26 Historical context: Between World War II and the 1980s............................................................29 Current issues: After the 1990s ....................................................................................................34 Possible causes of opposition to infrastructure development in the 1990s ..................................39 Lack of an institutionalized system for dispute resolution...........................................................43 Japanese tendency to emulate institutional innovations...............................................................44 Learning about consensus building processes..............................................................................48 Chapter 2: The Practice of Consensus Building in the United States ..... 51 Terminology .................................................................................................................................52 Historical context of consensus building in the US......................................................................53 Consensus building processes ......................................................................................................58 Rationale for using consensus building processes........................................................................73 Evaluating consensus building efforts..........................................................................................76 Conclusion....................................................................................................................................78 Chapter 3: Analyzing the International Transfer of Social Technology. 81 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................81 International policy transfer .........................................................................................................83 5 International transfer of organizational innovations.....................................................................90 Transferring and institutionalizing negotiation and dispute resolution processes........................95 Institutional thinking on the relationship between institution and individual action..................105 Analytical framework: process adaptation and organizational change.......................................108 Research methods.......................................................................................................................115 Chapter 4: The Japanese Context: A Qualitative Study......................... 123 Introduction ................................................................................................................................123 Research method.........................................................................................................................124 Categorizing the information: four realms of analysis ...............................................................132 Organizational realm ..................................................................................................................136 Normative realm.........................................................................................................................168 Regulative realm.........................................................................................................................181 Settings .......................................................................................................................................190 Conclusion..................................................................................................................................193 Chapter 5: The Site: Kita-josanjima Intersection ................................... 195 Issues with the Kita-josanjima Intersection................................................................................195 The context for the Kita-josanjima Intersection .........................................................................203 Chapter 6: The Experiment: Committee for the Improvement of Kita-josanjima Intersection ....................................................................... 215 Introduction: site entry................................................................................................................215 Organizing the experiment .........................................................................................................218 Conflict assessment ....................................................................................................................222 Stakeholder dialogue ..................................................................................................................238 Chapter 7: Stakeholder Reactions............................................................. 277 Getting feedback from the committee members.........................................................................277 Feedback.....................................................................................................................................279
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