The "Win-Win" Strategy for Sustainable Development : A Case Study of Recycling System in European Countries <論説>

According to static mindset, any regulation for ecological preservation means an unavoidable cost imposed on private economic activities, and promotes only a "end-of-pipe" type of technology. However, regulations devised from the view point of evolutionary mindset can reconcile economic development with ecological sustainability by encouraging an ecologically benign technology on micro level. However, the "win-win" strategy may result in "wrong-wrong" strategies, unless the private initiative on micro level is induced to achieve the purpose of ecological sustainability on macro scale by public policy networks. In this paper, a European experiment in the "win-win strategy" initiated in Germany is examined, with a view to introducing its merits to Japanese policy making for regional economic development.