Results of FY 2018 Survey of the Implementation of the Act to Prevent Soil Contamination on Agricultural Land

The MOE has been promoting the countermeasures against soil contamination on agricultural land with MAFF and compiled the results of the FY 2018 Survey of the Implementation of the Act to Prevent Soil Contamination on Agricultural Land. Under the Act, each prefectural governor shall continuously monitor the condition of agricultural land regarding soil pollution caused by Hazardous Substances (cadmium, copper and arsenic), and prefecture governors can designate the areas for countermeasures when the concentration of hazardous substances exceeds its limit.

Summary of the survey results:

(1) As a result of the continuous monitoring, in 3 areas the regulatory standard for cadmium was exceeded.

(2) There was no newly designated area for countermeasures.

There was no area where a plan for countermeasures was newly formulated or modified.

There was no newly canceled area.

The designation was partly canceled in 2 areas.

At the end of FY 2018, 73 areas have been designated in total. Among those areas, designation was all canceled in 57 areas and are still in place in 16 areas.

(3) At the end of FY 2018, 7,111 ha (93.7%) of all designated areas have completed their countermeasures.

The complete survey results can be accessed on the following website (Japanese only):

For Japanese

Attached File:

• Results of FY 2018 Survey of the Implementation of the Act to Prevent Soil Contamination on Agricultural Land (Japanese only) [PDF 707 KB]