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confronted with the scarcity of funds and technology for environmental protection despite environmental legislation that had been established systematically. In Korea, even after consolidating environmental policy, several pollution-related incidents still tok place, such as the phenol discharge incident at the Nak Dong River in 1991 and the citizens’ protest against reclaimed land for waste disposal at Kim Po in 1993. Such different degrees of policy implementation were caused by several factors. Pressure from foreign countries, especially from USA, has influenced Japanese environmental policy development. Examples include the improvement of Sumida River’s water quality just before the Tokyo Olympic Games in 1964, the regulation on exhaust gases in the USA’s Muskie Act of 1970, and the criticism of Japanese pollution-dumping in the U.S. President’s statement in 1970. Another crucial factor is the function of market mechanism. Faced with the regulation of exhaust gases by the Muskie Act in USA and the Oil Crisis in the 1970s, each Japanese automobile manufacturer was forced to develop new energy-saving and environmentally sound technologies, so as to compete with other automobile makers. As a result, advanced energysaving and environmentally sound technologies have been developed by Japanese automobile manufactures. Such influence from international pressure and function of market mechanism are significant factors for environmental policy development. In contrast to Japan’s experience, the Chinese government, under the Mao’s rule, insisted that the fundamental cause of Environmental pollution lay in capitalist countries, and pressure from foreign countries had little influence on China’s policy development. Moreover, Chinese environmental policy development occurred within a planned economy, and the influence of market competitiveness was negligible. Therefore, both investment and technological development for environmental protection by enterprises have not been promoted. Under the transition from a planned economy to a market economy since the mid 1980s, a market economy system has gradually been adopted such as the energy pricing reform. Korea also reduced air pollution in Seoul, just before the Seoul Olympic Games in 1988, as did Japan prior to the Tokyo Olympic Games. In near future, the Korean government will be required to respond to global environmental issues equal to developed countries as a member nation of OECD. On the other hand, several “Chaebols (combines)” have essentially had a monopoly on markets in the Korean economy. Monopolistic companies in the domestic market have not had much incentives to address pollution issues to compete with others. Thus, market conditions in Korea are quite different from the Japanese case. In both case of Korea and China, environmental policy was initiated relatively later when compared to Japan and other developed countries. Therefore, these two countries as latecomers have had the opportunity to learn from other counties’ experiences. In Korea, the Pollution Prevention Act of 1963 was modeled on Japanese legislation. Ever since, the Korean 14
government has sought to examine the experience in other countries, especially in Japan and USA. Under the influence of arguments within Japan and USA, Korea adopted advanced policy responses such as guaranteeing in the 1980 Constitution the right to environment and creating an environmental impact assessment system in 1982. In China, the Environmental Protection Law (in Trail Implementation) of 1979 also provided several advanced policy responses such as pollution discharge fee system and environmental impact assessment system similar to those adopted in developed countries. At present time, the opportunities for China to learn from other countries remain high. 4) Focus -shi ft Period The Japanese government, after overcoming industrial pollution by the mid 1970s, addressed issues related to the pursuit of quality of life (“Amenity“). However, environmental policy development in Japan slowed down by the early 1980s. Since the mid 1980s, global environmental issues have received much attention as a part of the policy agenda. In Korea, pollution control has not produced satisfactory results when compared to the Japanese case. The Korean government has had to address many environmental issues, such as pollution control, improvement of the quality of life, and global environmental issues at the same time. So far, Chinese environmental policy has arguably achieved few good results. While environmental issues in China is about to fall into crisis, foreign countries expect China to adopt appropriate responses to global environmental issues. To sum up the above differences among these three countries, six factors - Role of Local Government, Information Disclosure, Influence from International Pressure, Latecomer, Function of Market Mechanism, and Environmental Issues in the Policy Agenda - are of most significance for environmental policy development. These differences caused by these factors are summarized in Table 2. 5.Relationship between Economic Growth and Environmental Policy 5-1 National Experience Figure 3 - Figure 9 show rate of economic growth, GDP per capita at 1985 PPPs (Purchasing Power Parities), energy consumption per capita, energy intensity of GDP (energy consumption per GDP), and structural change (sectoral distribution of GDP) in each country. The PPPs here are based on the “Penn World Tables (Mark 5.6)” (see Summers and Heston,1991). 1) Japan GDP per capita in Japan had fractionally increased since the mid 1950s just after environmental policy in Japan was initiated, during when annual rate of economic growth had 15
Page 2 and 3: UNU/IAS Working Paper No. 95 A Comp
Page 4 and 5: 1.Introduction High rates of econom
Page 6 and 7: 1) Japan (1945-1954) Since the mid-
Page 8 and 9: areas. Pollution damages became so
Page 10 and 11: As a part of the policy reform sinc
Page 12 and 13: condition of the disease, however,
Page 14 and 15: has occurred in the late 1980s, cam
Page 18 and 19: een nearly 10%. At that time, moreo
Page 20 and 21: new environmental issues in the pol
Page 22 and 23: through a similar pattern. Thus env
Page 24 and 25: References Agency of Natural Resour
Page 26 and 27: Environmental Affairs 2(2): 103-108
Page 28 and 29: Table 1 Comparative Chronological T
Page 30 and 31: China Japan Korea China Japan Korea
Page 32 and 33: 1.National Experience (1) Events of
Page 34 and 35: 20 % 15 10 Japan Korea China 5 0 19
Page 36 and 37: 4,000 kg.oil equivalent 3,500 3,000
Page 38 and 39: 70 % 60 50 40 30 Agriculture Indust
Page 40: 70 % 60 50 40 30 Agriculture Indust

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