OECD's Environmental Performance Reviews: Japan

  • Evaluation
    • A number of the objectives of Japan's Second (2000) and Third (2006) Basic Environmental Plans were met by implementing a comprehensive set of policy instruments.
    • However, the management of key environmental domains, including waste, water and air management, is still based on the legal framework developed in the 1970s and 1980s and the Basic Environmental Law adopted in 1993.
    • Despite some progress with the use of market-based instruments, especially in water management, regulatory instruments and negotiated agreements with industry remain the most common policy choice.
    • Policy implementation is accompanied by extensive environmental information disclosure, including regular state of the environment reports, self-monitoring and corporate reporting by industry. In spite of the recent adoption of the Environmental Information Strategy (2009), environmental information and data systems remain fragmented. They also lack economic and financial information to support policy and decision-making in an integrated way.
    • In the area of air management, Japan is still one of the least pollution-intensive OECD countries. However, problems persist with air quality in urban areas, in particular with high levels of photochemical oxidants due to emissions from small and medium sized installations (as well as from sources outside the country), and with cumulative effects of emissions from mobile sources. Japan is not on track to meet its emission targets for NMVOCs and small particulate emissions are not systematically monitored.
    • Progress was made in improving the quality of Japanese rivers with important decreases of biological oxygen demand (BOD), nitrogen, phosphorous and heavy metals discharges. This was due to: i) the extension of municipal sewerage and wastewater treatment coverage in large cities (reaching the level of close to 100% of the population in cities with more than one million inhabitants); ii) the expansion of wastewater systems in rural areas (including individual sanitation units); and iii) reduced nutrient loads from agriculture.
    • However, lakes and coastal waters continue to suffer from algae blooms due to continued high nutrient load from agriculture, low and insufficient sewerage and wastewater treatment capacity in smaller cities, and discharges from unregulated small sources.
    • Japan has gradually developed a comprehensive, risk-based approach to chemicals management. Nevertheless, the private sector could shoulder a greater part of the burden of investigating the potential health and environmental risks of chemicals that have not been subject to systematic assessment (existing chemicals).
  • Recommendations
    It is recommended to:
    • review and update the 1993 Basic Environmental Law in order to consolidate, streamline, and make the existing body of laws more coherent;
    • expand the use of economic instruments, for example trading schemes and user charges, to increase the economic efficiency of environmental policies; review the cost-effectiveness of regulatory instruments and agreements negotiated with industry;
    • implement vigorously the 2009 Environmental Information Strategy; strengthen the collection of relevant information, particularly regarding economic aspects of environmental policies, and ensure that this information systematically responds to the demands of relevant decision makers;
    • broaden the range of mechanisms for public participation in environmental decision-making; increase public support for grass-root NGOs and more public participation in EIA procedures;
    • strengthen efforts to reduce NOx and NMVOC emissions in order to effectively tackle photochemical smog in urban areas; establish a monitoring system for small particulates;
    • further integrate the management of water quantity and quality; reinvigorate efforts to reduce pressures on the quality of inland lakes and coastal waters by reducing pollution from agriculture and small- and medium-sized sources (e.g. by strictly applying minimum environmental quality standards for heavy metals);
    • speed up the expansion of water supply and sanitation infrastructure in medium and small cities carefully assessing costs and benefits of existing collective and individual systems;
    • accelerate the programme for testing and assessing the potential health and environmental effects of existing chemicals, particularly through the greater involvement of the private sector, with a view to establishing a comprehensive chemicals management system, including the management of potential risks to children's health.