Contested Environmental Norms: Cultural Narratives and Animal Protection in Modern Japan.

Although it is often argued that environmental norms are strengthening, only a few have achieved the 'taken-for-granted' status, and most of the others remain caught in dynamic cycles of evolution and erosion. Why is that? In this article I argue that, in many cases, a variety of contestations have prevented the diffusion of environmental norms into local contexts or even eroded the once-adopted ones. I illustrate this claim using the case of contested animal protection norms in Japan. Drawing on narrative analysis, I define how Japan framed the human-animal relationship as a socially shared practice derived from religious sources, which should be guided by individual perceptions of morality rather than regulatory frameworks. This narrative hindered norm-promoting activism and was instrumentally used to legitimize political opposition toward the norm. Due to the effects of this contestation, Japan refrained from fully adopting the norm but focused on several of its components, such as domestic animal protection, around which there was more domestic activism and less political resistance. These findings illustrate the constitutive role of cultural narratives as a means of norm promotion and erosion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]