NATIONAL PROFILE on Chemicals Management - UNITAR

IntroductionThe United Nations Conference on Environment andDevelopment (UNCED), also known as the Earth Summit,that was held in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro adopted Agenda 21,an action plan for the 21st century. The IntergovernmentalForum on Chemical Safety (IFCS) is a forum establishedwith the goal of seeking cooperation among governments inorder to achieve the implementation of Chapter 19 ofAgenda 21, “Environmentally Sound Management of ToxicChemicals, including Prevention of Illegal InternationalTraffic in Toxic and Dangerous Products.” Approximately100 countries participate in the IFCS and its objective is topromote international chemical safety management.The goals for action in regard to chemical managementbased on Agenda 21 are largely classified in six programmeareas, as follows:(a) Expanding and accelerating international assessment ofchemical risks;(b) Harmonisation of classification and labelling ofchemicals;(c) Information exchange on toxic chemicals and chemicalrisks;(d) Establishment of risk reduction programmes;(e) Strengthening of national capabilities and capacities formanagement of chemicals;(f) Prevention of illegal international traffic in toxic anddangerous products.the Forums, and hosted the Intersessional Group III in 1998in Yokohama. Moreover, at the Forum III, Japan waselected for the IFCS Vice President, and thus organized the2002 Asia-Pacific Regional Conference of IFCS held atTokyo in October 2002. Japan played an active role as thechair, and priority issues for the Region and the measures topresent those issues were identified and compiled in theConference.As for a National Profile, the Editorial Committee forNational Profile, mainly comprised of the ministriesparticipating in the Inter-Ministerial Meeting on IFCS wasestablished in May 2002. The Editorial Committeemembers actively collaborated, and herewith finalisedJapan’s National Profile, with reference to the guidancedocument of the United Nations Institute for Training andResearch (UNITAR).The scope of this Profile is describing the facts that theministries participating in the Inter-Ministerial Meeting onIFCS are mainly involved.This Profile is the first “challenge” to comprehensivelydescribe the chemical management system in Japan. Isincerely hope that this Profile could be a useful referencematerial not only for people concerned in Japan, but also forthose in foreign countries, particularly, developingcountries, in their efforts of chemical management.Finally, I would highly appreciate the all whocontributed to editing this Profile.The development of a National Profile on ChemicalsManagement was recognised as one of the Priorities forAction of programme area E at the Forum I held atStockholm, Sweden in 1994. Also the Bahia Declaration onChemical Safety was adopted by the IFCS at its Forum IIIheld at Salvador, Brazil in 2000. In this declaration, a futuregoal was included most of the countries should develop aNational Profile.The Government of Japan has actively participated inOctober 2003Sadao NakaoVice President (Asia and Pacific Region)Office of Chemical SafetyPharmaceutical and Food Safety BureauMinistry of Health, Labour and WelfareVIII