Systems option for sustainable development--effect and limit of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry's efforts to substitute technology for energy

摘要

The global environmental consequences of CO_2 discharge resulting from energy sue are causing increasing concern regarding the sustainability of our development future. Despite the fragile nature of its energy structure, Japan successfully overcame two energy crises in the 1970s and managed to maintain economic growth which resulted in a dramatic improvement in its industrial technology. The success fo these efforts can be attributed to the substitution of an unconstrained production factor (technology) for a constrained production factor (energy), a process similar to that seen in an ecosystem. The Ministry of International Trade and Industry's (MITI) industrial technology policy functioned well in stimulating such substitution, thereby inducing the vitality of industry for this substitution. Given the two-sided nature of CO_2 emissions and energy consumption, Japan's experience can provide informative suggestions for addressing current worldwide concern regarding global warming, particularly with respect to post Kyoto countermeasures.