Abstract We can distinguish four historical stages of environmental problems in postwar Japanese society. Historical retrospect shows that Japan was one of the worst countries concerning environmental disruption and that it experienced various issues corresponding to the change of main investment domain. Since the late 60s, residents' movements of victims pushed the business world, the national and local goverments to take more strict measures for the protection of the environment. New policy framework was defined in the beginning of the 70s. But further improvement of environment policy was not carried out under stagflation of first oil crisis. As a result of economic growth, Japanese society multiplied its demands on the ecosystem and it became a society characterized by a “separate‐dependent ecosystem” and by “one‐way consumption.” Diseqilibrium of the power balance and defects in the decision‐making process are basic social factors that have accelerated environment destruction in Japan. Despite apparent change, these social conditions continue to exist without change, and constitute an obstacle to the development of an environment‐oriented technology and a transformation into a more “regenerative” society with a “se