Study Plans Concerning Monetary Evaluation of Mitigation Measures for the Fukushima Daiichi Accident

10th Eco-Energy and Materials Science and Engineering (EMSES2012)The Fukushima Daiichi accident raises various kinds of social unease in Japan. Especially, unease for radioactive contamination around the Fukushima Daiichi plant is serious. Also, around the other nuclear power plants, local residents would feel unease for a similar accident in the future. Although the government and the electric power companies have already implemented or plan to implement several measures to mitigate such unease, it is difficult to progress their policies effectively because the effect of each measure is not quantitatively clarified. The purpose of our research is to evaluate these effects by analyzing fluctuations in local property values and local residents economic welfare, which are monetary indexes reflecting the social unease, to construct information that is useful to plan an optimal package of mitigation measures in each nuclear power plant site from the viewpoint of cost-benefit analysis. In this paper, we explain the immediate plans of this research and its academic and political contributions

Nature and Happiness Levels: New SWB Domains for Rivers, a Lake, and Forests

By using a questionnaire survey, we measured nature-related happiness levels, which include specific domains that differ from the overall subjective well-being (SWB) in a Japanese watershed. We regarded nature-related happiness levels, specifically related to rivers, a lake, or forests, as meaningful indices because many people living separated from nature may be unaware of their relationship with nature. We found that nature-related happiness levels had convergent validity and distinct correlation patterns with the explanatory variables, and these patterns were different from those of the overall SWB. These findings support the case of measuring nature-related happiness levels and overall SWB. Nature-related happiness levels were positively correlated with leisure activities and contact with living things. The abundance of rivers in a district is negatively associated with river-related happiness. We speculated that this was due to unidentified disservices associated with the rivers. Lake-related happiness has stronger correlations with relaxation benefits than symbolism, local food culture, art/culture, or water sources. Considering these findings, policymakers should formulate policies based on nature-related happiness levels. Because nature-related happiness levels are not correlated with income level, such policies may contribute to residents’ well-being in an egalitarian manner