Quality of the Environment in Japan 1996
contents
- To Readers
- Part I
- Prologue A Sustainable Future and Today's Environment
- Chapter 1 Rich Human Life Dependent on the Environment
- Section 1. Our Daily Lives and the Environment
- 1. Changes in the Quantity and Quality of Food Consumption
- 2. Changing Position of Food Production in the Environment
- 3. Food and the Environment from a Global Perspective
- 4. Japan's Food Imports and Nitrogen Circulation
- 5. Changing Eating Habits so that They Become Integrated in the Process of Natural Circulation
- 6. Towards an Environmentally Sound Lifestyle
- Section 2. Childhood Play and the Environment that Nurtures Rich Minds and Spirits
- Section 3. Art, Culture and the Environment
- Section 1. Our Daily Lives and the Environment
- Chapter 2. Environmental Conservation from the Viewpoints of Biodiversity and Eco-Efficiency
- Section 1, Biodiversity and Human Life
- Section 2. Making Economic Activities Eco-efticient
- 1. Towards an Economic Society with Full Consideration for Environmental Protection
- 2. Internalizing Environmental Considerations in Corporate Activities
- 3. Eco-efficiency: Internalizing Environmental Costs and Increasing Quality of Economic Activities
- 4. Challenges of Enterprises and Development of Eco-business
- 5. Government Measures Regarding Its Economic Activities
- 6. Local Government Measures in Economic Activities
- 7. Measures at the Household Consumption Level
- Chapter 3. A Sustainable Future Built by Partnerships
- Section 1. Building Partnerships for a Sustainable Future
- 1. Partnerships
- 2. Partnerships to Conserve Regional Environments
- 3. Trans-regional Partnerships
- 4. Trans-industrial Partnerships
- 5. Trans-national Partnerships
- 6. Environmental NGOs that Link Different Sectors
- 7. Significance of Partnerships
- 8. Environmental Education and Learning, Establishing Information Base, and Promotion Base for Environmental Activities
- 9. Citizens' Participation in Decision Making that Affects the Environment
- Section 2. The Concept of Environmental Indicators and Environmental Risk : For a Wide Range of Measures with the Better Understanding of Relationships between Human Activities and the Environment
- 1. Roles of Environmental Indicators
- 2. International Efforts to Develop Environmental Indicators
- 3. Japan's Efforts
- 4. Towards Further Utilization of Environmental Indicators
- 5. Today's Environmental Policies and the Concept of Environmental Risk
- 6. Evaluation and Management of Environmental Risk
- 7. Risk Communication
- 8. New Trends Regarding Environmental Risk Concerning Chemical Substances
- Section 3. To Incorporate Environmental Consideration into a Wide Range of Socio-Economic Activities under a Fair Division of Roles
- Section 4. Gathering Human Wisdom for a Sustainable Future
- Section 1. Building Partnerships for a Sustainable Future
- Chapter 4. State of the Environment
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- 1. Global Warming
- 2. Ozone Layer Depletion
- 3. Acid Rain
- 4. Air Pollution Caused by Nitrogen Oxides
- 5.Noise,Vibration and Offensive Odour
- 6. Water Pollution in Oceans, Rivers and Lakes
- 7. Underground Water
- 8. Soil Pollution and Land Subsidence
- 9. State of Increasing Wastes and Recycling
- 10. Japan's Vegetation Cover
- 11. Disappearing Tropical Forests
- 12. Endangered Wildlife
- 13. Interacting with Nature
- 14. Heat Island and Artificial Light Pollution
- 15. Citizen's Environment Awareness
- 16. Encouraging Conservation Action
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- Final Remarks
- Part II
- Introduction
- Chapter 5. The Realization of a Socioeconomic System Based on a Cycle that Imposes a Small Burden on the Environment
- Section 1. Conservation of the Atmospheric Environment
- 1. Conservation of the Atmospheric Environment on a Global Scale
- 2. Countermeasures to Problems over a Wide Area
- 3. Countermeasures to the Problem of the Accumulation of Burdens on Large Metropolitan Areas,etc.
- 4. The Prevention of Influences on Health Due to Diverse Toxic Substances
- 5. Countermeasures to Regional Living Environment Problems
- 6. Improvement of Air Pollution Monitoring System
- Section 2. Conservation of the Water Environment
- Section 3. Conservation of the Soil Environment and Ground Environment
- Section 4. Policies on Waste and Recycling
- Section 5. Measures for Environmental Risk of Chemical Substances
- 1. Promoting Safety-related Policies for Chemical Substances
- 2. Outline of the General Inspection Survey of Chemical Substances on Environmental Safety
- 3. Outline of the Results of the Investigation and Survey on Designated Chemical Substances,etc.
- 4. Outline of the Results of the Follow-up Survey of the Situation of Pollution by Unintentionally Formed Chemical Substances
- 5. Agricultural Chemical Environmental Risk Countermeasures
- Section 6. Environmental Considerations of Technological Development and Coping with New Problems
- Section 1. Conservation of the Atmospheric Environment
- Chapter 6. Harmonious Coexistence between Nature and Humankind
- Chapter 7. Participation by All Sectors of Society Sharing Fair Allotment of Roles
- Section 1. Promotion of the Independent, Constructive Actions of Each Actor
- Section 2. Pioneering Action Measures Directed towards Environmental Conservation by the Government as a Business Operator and a Consumer
- Section 3. The Measures of National and Local Public Entities in the Main Socioeconomic Areas
- Chapter 8. Promotion of Common Basic Policies Related to Environmental Conservation
- Section 1. Environmental Impact Assessment, etc.
- Section 2. Regulatory Measures
- Section 3. Economic Measures
- Section 4. Environmental Infrastructure Improvement
- Section 5. Amplification of Survey Research, and Monitoring and Observation, and Promotion of Appropriate Technology, etc.
- Section 6. Development and Provision of Environmental Information
- Section 7. The Regional Environmental Pollution Control Programs
- Section 8. Environmental Health Measures, Settlement of Pollution Disputes, etc.
- Section 9. Promotion of Rational and Reasonable Land Use
- Chapter 9. Promoting International Efforts
- Section 1. The Promotion of International Cooperation toward the Conservation of the Global Environment
- Section 2. Securing International Cooperation for Environmental Studies, Research, Monitoring and Observation
- Section 3. Encouraging the Activities of Local Public Organizations and Private Sector Organizations
- Section 4. Environmental Considerations in the Implementation of International Cooperation
- Section 5. Efforts Concerning Global Environmental Conservation Based on International Conventions
- 1. Prevention of Global Warming
- 2. Protection of the Ozone Layer
- 3. Acid Deposition
- 4. Prevention of Pollution of the Marine Environment
- 5. Countermeasures to Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes
- 6. Conservation of Forests
- 7. Protection of Biological Diversity
- 8. Prevention of Desertification
- Chapter 10. Effective Implementation of the Basic Environment Plan
To Readers
This book is an English version of the Japanese government's an-nual report on the environment, "White Paper on the Environment which was drawn up for the fiscal year 1995 and adopted by the Cabi-net 31 May 1996.
PartI was re-edited, adding new information and photographs, in order to make it easier to understand and more accessible to the gen-eral public.
The "White Paper" confines itself mainly to events in the previ-ous year. In 1995 the Environment Agency started establishing the ba-sic ideas, frameworks and long-term directions of those environmental policies that were indicated in the Basic Environment Law and the Ba-sic Environment Plan.
Important measures have been promoted in various fields. To take some examples, the Action Plan for Greening Government Opera-tions, and the National Strategy for Biological Diversity have been es-tablished, and the Law for Promotion of Sorted Collection and Recycling of Containers and Packaging has been enacted and enforced.
However, in order to increase the effectiveness of these meas-ures, it is essential that all the sectors that comprise our current society establish partnerships and work together under a system of fair divi-sion of roles and responsibilities. Therefore, this year's White Paper fo-cuses on the importance of "partnership."
Many of today's environmental problems are caused by the inter-twined activities of the many different sectors that make up today's huge and complex economic society. It is not always easy to recognise and understand this, nor is it easy to come up with concrete solutions to these problems. Given this fact, this year's White Paper talks about how people's day to day activities are related to the natural environment. To realize the fact that our daily activities depend on the environment, and also exert certain pressures on the environment, is the first step neces-sary to establish partnerships.
The White Paper also deals with issues of biodiversity and eco-efficiency as basic concepts, in order to help the public have a common understanding of how our environment is shaped and an understanding of how the structure of human society sits within the context of the natural environment.
Moreover, with a view to solve various environmental issues ranging from regional to global in scale, the White Paper looks closely at various forms of partnership, in order that all the sectors concerned should have a shared recognition and understanding of the problems, and from this should be able to make efforts to achieve common goals and solutions. To realise this, the White Paper discusses many systems such as environmental indicators, notions of environmental risk, eco-nomic instruments and environmental impact assessment. It also con-siders the interdisciplinary subject, "Global Environmental Studies," which embraces different academic disciplines such as the natural sci-ences, social sciences and the humanities, to enable us to make a major change that affects our whole economic society.
We hope that this book will help you participate in concrete envi-ronmental conservation activities.