What comes to mind when you hear about “plastic pollution?” Negotiations have now commenced on the formulation of treaties to discuss countermeasures on the international level. While many efforts are necessary, the Ministry of the Environment of Japan, for example, is working on the international harmonization of monitoring methods and data preparation in relation to plastics in the environment, with a view to elucidating the actual state of pollution.

Coral seas are important for fostering fisheries and as recreational resources but are often degraded by development and overuse. Research has progressed on the economic valuation of the environment in order to incorporate environmental conservation into social decision-making. One of the methods, the virtual assessment method, was used to evaluate the marine biodiversity around Kashiwa Island, Kochi Prefecture. The same method was used to assess the amount of residents' willingness to work for the management of marine protected areas in the Philippines.

The author, while apprenticing to skindiving fishermen on Irabu Island in the Miyako Islands, Okinawa Prefecture, has been conducting research on how people on the periphery of the socioeconomic dynamics of contemporary Okinawa have lived with nature. This paper will introduce an aspect of their world view and perception of nature through negotiations with local cultural customs and beliefs based on fieldwork experiences.