OECD's Environmental Performance Reviews: Japan

  • Evaluation
    • Japan has played a proactive and constructive role in international environmental cooperation, particularly in the areas of climate change, waste management and resource productivity, chemicals management, water and, more recently, biodiversity. It has a good record of meeting international commitments in multilateral and other environmental agreements, and actively supports international initiatives and institutions.
    • Japan's absolute level of official development assistance (ODA) to developing countries is among the highest in the world. However, Japanese ODA decreased to 0.19% of GNI in 2008, which is far below the 0.7% UN goal and among the lowest in OECD.
    • Environment is a prominent component of the country's aid policy, accounting for about 30% of its ODA in 2008. Over 90% of Japanese bilateral environmental cooperation is in the form of loans that must be repaid, albeit on concessional terms.
    • Japanese bilateral environmental cooperation programmes with China, Indonesia and other countries have contributed to real environmental improvements in those countries. Japan has attached increasing importance to promoting regional environmental cooperation in various areas, notably: transboundary air pollution, fisheries management, and cooperation on oil spills. The Tripartite Environment Ministerial Meetings between Japan, China and Korea have become more action-oriented in recent years.
    • However, further efforts are needed on the implementation side, for instance to tackle transboundary transport of photochemical oxidants and dust and sand storms, which continue to cause problems in Japan.
    • Japan has co-operated actively with its partners to integrate trade an environment policies and to tackle illegal trade in environmental sensitive products. For instance, Japan is the second largest contributor to the Multilateral Fund for the Implementation of the Montreal Protocol on ozone depleting substances (ODS), Japan has been at the forefront of international co-operative efforts to manage chemicals, and Japan established an ad hoc enforcement unit to ensure continuous monitoring of trade in species identified under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered and Threatened Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
    • Japan has developed a new framework to promote a sustainable model for managing the marine environment. Nonetheless, further efforts are needed to implement some marine conventions, including the London Dumping Convention and the Ballast Water Convention.
  • Recommendations
    It is recommended to:
    • maintain a strong commitment to environment within an expanded volume of official development assistance in line with international commitments; promote a more systematic application of strategic environmental assessment in development cooperation; and maximise the benefits of environmental development aid by providing it under untied conditions;
    • promote sustainable management of fisheries and the marine ecosystems through a region-wide agreement for the Northwest Pacific Ocean and bilateral cooperation with developing countries providing fish resources to Japan;
    • strengthen the enforcement of laws and regulations to prevent illegal trafficking in wildlife and wildlife products;
    • strengthen tripartite cooperation with China and Korea on chemicals management, and extend it to other countries in the Asian region where chemicals production and use is increasing;
    • strengthen regional cooperation to monitor transboundary air pollution, especially the precursors of photochemical oxidants and dust and sand storms, and to reduce emissions at source.