A TREND STUDY OF THE PROBLEM OF PUBLIC ACCEPTANCE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN JAPAN

Public acceptance of science and technology in Japan cannot be viewed in isolation, either topically or temporally. Science and technology are never perceived as purely technical or purely scientific but rather as socio-technical or socio-scientific. Whereas science and technology were early on perceived as deterministic, more recently they have come to be seen as potentially manipulatable and regulatable. There is certainly a structural interconnection between scientific/technological innovations and social issues, particularly as public acceptance of science and technology is seen as a factor in modernization. This calls for a broad context of interpretation of the socio-political issues impacting upon public acceptance of science and technology. Public acceptance of science and technology is imperative for keeping the development of science and technology on the right track. While it used to be that science and technology were seen as almighty powers for improving the quality of life, in reality this is no longer the case. This paper addresses the assessment of public acceptance of science and technology in Japan from a number of perspectives: influence of the media, survey methodologies and their content, the adequacy or inadequacy of public polls and surveys, the need for longitudinal/trend assessment and analysis, the role of specific events and issues (e.g., Chernobyl), and the role of such social phenomena as cultural lag.