2011 / March

【研究論文】Responsibility, Morality and Civil Action in the Asbestos Problem: Case Study on a Japanese Experience
【Research Papers】Responsibility, Morality and Civil Action in the Asbestos Problem: Case Study on a Japanese Experience

志村幸紀
Yukinori Shimura

27-

神戶大學大學院人文學研究科博士後研究
【本文為英文論文，請按此閱讀英文版摘要】
Post Doctoral Fellow, Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Kobe University, Japan
This paper is written out of concern over a social issue―the asbestos problem in Japan. When enterprises damage the environment or civil life, citizens can hardly find a way to deal with the problem. In order to get some clues to the problems, we focus on three aspects: responsibility, morality and civil action. First, we may ascribe responsibility to a company in that the company had used hazardous technologies and it must account for its behavior to the public. Despite the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility, however, we find CSR has not played sufficiently its role in the society. Second, we may make the sense of corporate morality clear. It has been controversial whether a corporation has morality similar to that of human beings. We need therefore to consider the nature of a corporation from philosophical and ontological aspects. Third, we should think about the possibility of civil action. It is true that citizens have much less knowledge or margin for time and money to solve big social issues than experts, but their activities can be forceful enough to detect problems or save suffering people. Finally, we conclude that both corporations and citizens should take responsibility whenever possible.

Keywords: asbestos problem, accountability, reality, risk assessment