Technodemocracy and Public Participation: Japanese experience since 1990

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Techno-democracy and Public ParticipationJapanes
e experience since 1990

• KOBAYASHI Tadashi(????)
• Center for the Study of Communication-Design
• Osaka University

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Consensus conference in Japan
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Historical Background The Erosion of Public
Trust in T/S

• The Japan AIDS Scandal in 1996
• The Aum cult terrorism in 1995
• The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake in 1995
• The JCO criticality accident in 1999.9.30
• The first case of BSE in Japan in 2001.9.10

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(No Transcript)
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Change of the governments attitude

• The government and experts of T/S seek to
  reconstruct the relation
• The erosion of public trust in T/S
• To involve the general public in the policy
  making process
• comments on draft legislation
• public opinion surveys
• open working groups
• laypeoples panels (including consensus
  conference)
• dialogue processes

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Consensus conference in Japan

• Feasibility studies(1998,1999)
• Our concern
• recruitment of lay panel/experts
• discussion with deliberation
• The Japanese are poor at discussion?

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Consensus conference in Japan

• The first nation-wide C.C. on GMOs(2000)
• Concern
• MAFF official
• Lay panels report critical to MAFF?
• Facilitator betrays MAFF?
• Lay panel
• Are we merely fooled by MAFF?
• Facilitator is a marionette of MAFF?
• Facilitatorme
• Am I fooled by MAFF?

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Safety Apparatus For MAFF

• MAFF
• Free hand for policy-making
• Legitimacy of the Lay panel
• Safety Apparatus
• discovering issues for investigation and
  research to be needed in future from citizens
  point of view.

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Deliberation/Maturity

• Not Consensus but Meta-Consensus
• Consensus on recording minority views
• Deepening understanding
• a member of the Lay panel
• understanding the reason of minoritys view
• MAFF official
• understanding to allow a chance to choose

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Conclusion or Unresolved Issues

• Effects of consensus conference
• the message
• Deliberative Democracy practice (such as C.C. )
  is possible in Japan!
• People got a matured perspective.
• The government began to understand the need of
  these practice.
• From recipient to partner
• (The white paper on science and technology
  issued by MEXT in 2001)

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Conclusion or Unresolved Issues

• Legitimacy problem
• relation to representative democracy
• citizens opinion and policy-making
• representation of citizen group
• Sponsor
• governments ?
• NPOs, NGOs ?

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Last Remark

• What is lacking is not the existence of the
  people willing to discuss social issues with
  careful deliberation, but the channel to listen
  to their voices.