Unit Leader

Takehiro Watanabe (03-3238-4020, takwatanabe@sophia.ac.jp)

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ICC Collaborators

• Takeshi Ito (takeshi.ito@sophia.ac.jp)

• Angela Yiu (a-yiu@sophia.ac.jp)

 

Affiliated researchers

• Mikiko Sugiura (Sophia, Center for Global Education)

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Roles

• Watanabe: Unit coordinator, talk event organizer

• Ito & Yiu: contributors for book

• Sugiura: managing editor of book

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Number of years seeking ICC funding

One year

 

Research Aim:

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This research unit is dedicated to exploring water-related issues in Japan through an interdisciplinary lens. By drawing on insights from diverse fields—anthropology, political science, ecology, hydrology, water resource management, and more—we aim to create a platform that fosters collaboration across disciplines while introducing water-related issue in Japan. Water is vital to all life on Earth, playing crucial roles at every scale, from the microscopic to the planetary. Water comes in many forms—rivers, lakes, groundwater, wetlands, and oceans—all of which are vital to ecological balance and human society. From supporting public health and food production to powering industry, water is central to the metabolism of social life. In the face of global challenges like climate change, its significance is even greater, with nature-based solutions like wetlands becoming key to climate resilience, flood control, biodiversity conservation, and environmental remediation. The intricate relationship between water and society underscores the need for a comprehensive, interdisciplinary approach to understanding and managing this critical resource. Our unit traces its origins to a team-taught course at Sophia University, initially developed as part of a Monkasho program, implemented from 2013 to 2017, to strengthen the international presence of Japanese universities. This program, which was extended until 2022, brought together experts from various disciplines to examine water issues from multiple disciplines. The successful collaboration within this course laid the groundwork for this research unit, which consists of ICC members who were instrumental in the course’s design and teaching. Through specific case studies in Japan, our research seeks to reveal the diverse and intricate roles that water plays across different contexts, drawing connections between various perspectives to create a comprehensive understanding of Japan’s water environments. We believe that by building an interdisciplinary research platform, we can better address global environmental challenges, such as climate change and biodiversity loss, where water plays a crucial role. Collaborative efforts like these are vital for developing lasting, effective solutions.

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Research Outcomes:

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Plans for publication:​

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The main goal is to produce a book that explores water through the framework of interdisciplinary research. Intended to be used by English-language researchers and students, the book is composed of case studies that introduce the readers to water-related sites and issues in Japan. The book is based on the conviction that water is important enough to warrant an entire volume because it embodies the interplay between humanity and nature. Its approach is interdisciplinary because water, despite its seeming simplicity, proves exceedingly challenging to grasp in its entirety.   At this point there are no books in the English language that explores Japan’s water environments in an interdisciplinary way. The book will be about 60,000 words, with several illustrations and figures. The book will be published in physical and e-book formats. The following is the current table of contents:

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Preface (Miki Sugimura)

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Introduction: “Invitation to explore various waters in Japan” (Mikiko Sugiura & Takehiro Watanabe)

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Chapter 1: “Wetlands in Japan: Practice and Perspectives: Conservation and Restoration of Wetlands and the Environments” (Shiro Tsuyuzaki)

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Chapter 2: “Sequential Trends of Riparian Vegetation Coverage in Japanese Rivers: The Effects of Human Intervention” (Takashi Asaeda)

 

Chapter 3: "Multi-Angled Analyses of Molecular and Physiological Characteristics in Microorganisms and Plants for the Assessment of Environment in the Watarase Retarding Basin" (Tamao Saito, Nobuyuki Kanzawa, and Nobuhiro Suzuki)

 

Chapter 4: “Water Use Governance Seen from the Intersection of Agricultural Engineering and Social Sciences” (Mikiko Sugiura)

 

Chapter 5: “Lessons Learned from the Long-Term Change of Water Environment in a Lake”
(Guangwei Huang)

 

Chapter 6: “Socionatures: Rivers, Salmon, and People in the Kushiro River Basin, Eastern Hokkaido” (Takeshi Ito)

 

Chapter 7: “A Bypass is Cheating!: Children, Community, and the Challenges of Restoring a Stream in Tokyo” (Takehiro Watanabe)

 

Epilogue: “Contemplating our changing relationship with nature” (Angela Yiu)

 

Boxes: Several short “aside commentaries” will supplement the main chapters. Some of the topics planned are: “A view from conservation ecology: culture and wetland friendship?”; “A tour of Tone River”; “Ashio Copper Mine and Japan’s first modern industrial pollution disaster”

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​We have received a publishing agreement with Sophia University Press and the manuscript is currently being edited. For this ICC research unit, we are seeking funding to cover a portion of the cost for copyediting, indexing, and design of the book, which are tasks being planned for April to July of 2025. The book is expected to be printed and available for retail by the summer of 2025.

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Plans for symposium

 

The second goal is to organize one or two talk events, including a book launch. A book launch event, to be held in 2025 autumn, would involve presentations by several chapter contributors.

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Relationship to any existing projects
 

This research unit is related to the Monkasho program,「大学の世界展開力強化事業」(2013-2017) and the subsequent expansion of the project by the university (2017-2022).