Food and Environmental Policy

Toward the “Asian Ways” of Sustainable Development: Viewing Our Food and Environment from Social, Political, and Economic Perspectives
Social sciences and humanities (SSH) can contribute to solving food and environmental problems. We are especially employing area studies / political and economic perspectives to broadly re-examine these issues in Asia, such as agriculture, resource industries, environmental policies, community-based development, disaster management, etc. The 21st century is believed to be the Asian century. The future of our world thus largely rests on how Asia commits to sustainability. Based on domestic, foreign, and international research from Asia and other regions, we wish to examine changes in human–nature relationships and the balance between development and the environment.

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	Prof. UBUKATA Fumikazu E-mail: ubukat-f [at] okayama-u.ac.jp Development studies/Environmental studies/Policy/Asia/Area studies/Social sciences and Humanities (SSH) Directory of Researchers

Infosphere and local frontier society in Southeast Asia: Cases in environmental and disaster management

A Dayak farmer shows the location of his oilpalm plantation (Sarawak, Malaysia, 2018)

In Southeast Asia, many frontier societies have been increasingly integrated with urban centers and global cities through commodities and information, and this trend has further strengthened through the development of ICTs in the name of “sustainable development”. How then will such increases in the state and market influences change the local frontier societies? Taking the cases of PES, commodity certification, and disaster prevention, the study tries to examine how relevant actors have expanded their information basis, and how such development has affected governance in real society.

	Assoc. Prof. OHNAKA Katsutoshi E-mail: k-onaka [at] cc.okayama-u.ac.jp Food security/Development and environment/Policy/Asia/Area studies/Social sciences and Humanities (SSH) Directory of Researchers

Internationalized Food, Agriculture, and Environmental Policies

As the economic ties with countries around the world grow stronger, Japan has become significantly influenced by global issues of food, agriculture, and the environment. It has become difficult to solve these issues through the policies of a single country alone. We are conducting research on Japan’s food, agriculture, and environmental policies, taking into consideration the impact of international trade relations and policies of various countries.