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damages from the polluters. Polluting companies lost the legal case. Furthermore, the
regulation on exhaust gases in the USA’s Muskie Act of 1970 and the Oil Crisis in 1973 forced
each Japanese exporting company, particularly automobile manufacturers, to develop new
energy-saving and environmentally sound technologies. Thus, an increase of environmental
investment and technological development in the private sector, especially in 1974-1976,
contributed considerably to the making and implementation of advanced policy responses, such
as the enactment of the Law concerning Compensation for Pollution Related Health Damage of
1973 and the strengthening of the regulation on exhaust gases of 1976 (it was called the
“Syowa 53 rd fiscal year regulation”).
2) Korea (1980-1989)
Rapid economic growth had given rise to significant environmental issues, such as health
injuries caused by water pollution in the Kwan Yang Bay in 1977 and collective citizens’ protest
against the construction of a dam at the estuary of Nak Dong River in 1978, just before Cung
Du-Whan took power in the late 1970s. In response these issues, the Environment Preservation
Act was enacted in 1977 (it since then has been amended several times), in comprehensive
legislative form. It provided an administrative framework for environmental control and
preservation (Koo,1979,p.13). In the next year, the President also declared a Charter of Nature
Conservation, which accelerated the campaign of nature conservation as a part of environmental
policy.
Through the Environment Preservation Act, for the first time, the Korean government set
water quality standards in 1978 and sulfur dioxides (SO2) standard for air quality in 1979.
Subsequently, in 1980, the government established the Environment Administration, as a subcabinet
agency in the Ministry of Public Health and Social Affairs, in order to meet the
environmental control. The government also began to regularly publish an Environmental
White Paper in 1982. Moreover, the Constitution of 1980 guaranteed people the right to live in
clean and healthy environment, under the influence of arguments within Japan and USA. Then,
the amended Environment Preservation Act introduced several new features of environmental
policy responses, such as the system of environmental impact assessment (in the absence of
public involvement procedures, at that time) in 1982 and the emission charge system in 1983.
In 1981, it was decided that the Olympic Games would be held in Seoul. Then, air pollution
in Seoul, which had become most serious in 1979, was regarded as the urgent policy agenda. In
order to improve air quality, the Korean government began to supply lower sulfur content oil in
1981, strengthened vehicle emission standards in 1987, and required the supply and use of
clean fuels such as LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) in large cities in 1988. Another significant issue
that the Korean government faced in this period was a mass outbreak of pollution diseases in
the Onsan Industrial area. In 1985, the so-called Onsan disease received much attention
nationwide through newspaper’s reports. The Korea government, investigating the actual
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