The Japanese Approach to Environmental Issues - World Affairs ...

ENVIRONMENTGeneral ResourcesMINISTRY OF THE ENVIRONMENT (GOVERNMENT OF JAPAN)http://www.env.go.jp/en/This site provides an overview of Japan’s main environmental issues, including waste and recycling,air and transportation, water and soil, health and chemicals, etc.THE BASIC ENVIRONMENTAL LAW AND BASIC ENVIRONMENTAL PLAN –OVERVIEWhttp://www.env.go.jp/en/laws/policy/basic_lp.htmlThe Basic Environment Plan was drawn up in December 1994 based on the Basic EnvironmentLaw, which outlines the general direction of Japan's environmental policies. The Basic EnvironmentPlan is designed to engage all sectors of the society in a concerted effort to protect the environment.The Plan maps out the basic approach of environmental policies with the mid-twenty-first century inview and identifies four long-term objectives. It also sets the direction of measures to beimplemented by the early twenty-first century for achieving these objectives.THE BASIC ENVIRONMENTAL LAWhttp://www.env.go.jp/en/laws/policy/basic/index.htmlThe purpose of this law is to comprehensively and systematically promote policies forenvironmental conservation to ensure healthy and cultured living for both the present andfuture generations of the nation as well as to contribute to the welfare of mankind, througharticulating the basic principles, clarifying the responsibilities of the State, local governments,corporations, and citizens, and prescribing the basic policy considerations for environmentalconservation.ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT IN JAPANhttp://www.env.go.jp/en/policy/assess/pamph.pdfEnvironmental Impact Assessment provides for the environmental impacts of development projectsto be surveyed, forecasted, and evaluated by proponents in the process of designing the project.Those results are then opened to the public to obtain opinions, both from citizens and from localgovernments. The best project scheme can then be developed incorporating these various viewpointsand addressing the issue of environmental protection.THE CHALLENGE TO ESTABLISH THE RECYCLING-BASED SOCIETY: THEBASIC LAW FOR ESTABLISHING THE RECYCLING-BASED SOCIETY ENACTED(May 2000)http://www.env.go.jp/recycle/panf/fig/e-guide.pdf“The Basic Law for Establishing the Recycling-based Society” was enacted in May 2000, in order toturn Japan, in the twenty-first century, into a recycling-based society. The Basic Law aims to promotewaste measures and recycling measures comprehensively and systematically.ABRIDGED AND ILLUSTRATED FOR EASY UNDERSTANDING – ANNUALREPORT ON THE ENVIRONMENT IN JAPAN (2006)http://www.env.go.jp/en/wpaper/2006/fulltext.pdfThis booklet, edited to reach out to a wider readership with a more readable publication, is asummary of the Quality of the Environment in Japan 2006 (White Paper), an annual report on theenvironment issued by the Government, published on May 30, 2006. It offers an overview of severalsubjects including “Population Decline and the Environment” and “Fifty Years of MinamataDisease, Origin of Japan’s Environmental Problems” (in Part One) as well as a digest ofenvironmental conservation policies and measures implemented by the Government in fiscal year2005 (in Part Two).10