FY 2012 Dissemination Status of Wastewater Treatment Facilities

The Ministry of the Environment, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (referred to as the "Three Ministries") compiled a report on the state of population served with wastewater treatment facilities across the nation as of the end of FY 2012 (March 31, 2013). Forty-six prefectures are covered in this report. Fukushima prefecture is excluded, as some of the municipalities stricken by the Great East Japan Earthquake (March 11, 2011) are non-survey.

Local governments have been improving wastewater treatment facilities efficiently and effectively based on a prefectural plan that stipulates areas, methods and timeframes for improvement.

The population served with wastewater treatment facilities in Japan (except for Fukushima) as of the end of FY 2012 is 111.38 million. The dissemination rate, which is the ratio of the number of people covered by wastewater treatment facilities to the total population (except for Fukushima), is 88.1% (87.6% as of the end of FY 2011, excluding data for Iwate and Fukushima). However, it is the situation that 15 million people aren't covered by wastewater treatment facilities yet.

There is a large gap between the population served with wastewater treatment facilities in big cities and medium-sized and small towns and villages. Namely, the dissemination rate is only 74.4% in small towns with a population under 50,000.

The breakdown of populations served with wastewater treatment facilities by facility type is: 96.45 million covered by sewage, 3.6 million by rural community sewerage, 11.06 million by johkasou*, and 266,000 by community wastewater treatment plants.

* An on-site treatment system for domestic wastewater.

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