Significance and issues for promotion of groundwater governance in Japan

Abstract

The concept of groundwater governance has taken over the discussion of Integrated Water Resource Management centered on stakeholder participation and cross-sector integration. The Groundwater Governance Project by Global Environmental Facility and other international organizations from 2011 to 2014 comprehensively reviewed the current status of groundwater governance all over the world and concluded that it is still far from an ideal state. In the case of Japan,top-down regulations by national and local governments have been the main way for groundwater management traditionally. However,there have been moves to adopt the concept of groundwater governance recently. This paper gives a brief overview of groundwater management in Japan based on "four components of governance" by the Groundwater Governance Project actors; legal, regulatory and institutional frameworks; goals, policies and plans; and information,knowledge and science and discusses the significance and issues of introducing the concept of groundwater governance.