December 21, 2004
The Ministry of the Environment compiled a report on complaints on noise and the status of enforcement of the Noise Regulation Law in FY 2003 based on reporting by local governments.
| 1. | Status with regard to the environmental quality standards (EQSs) for noise |
Five years have passed since the environmental quality standards for noise was enforced on April 1 1999 (Environmental Agency Notification No. 64, September 30, 1998). Number of municipalities where area type for EQS have been applied is 1,809, comprising approximately 57.3% of total municipalities in Japan. 261 municipalities conducted environmental noise survey in FY 2003 (Table 1).
2. Status of complaints on noise
Complaints on noise totaled 15,928 in FY 2003 (15,461 in FY 2002), an increase of 467 complaints (an approx. 3.0% increase) over the previous year. A breakdown of these complaints according to the noise source shows that factories and business establishments accounted for 5,341 complaints (33.5% of the total), construction projects for 4,302 complaints (27.0%) and business operations 2,163 (13.6%).
Compared to the previous year, the number of complaints related to factories and business establishments increased by 88, while complaints to construction projects increased by 134 and those regarding business operations by 83 (Figs. 1 and 2).
| 3. | Status of enforcement of the Noise Regulation Law |
As of March 31, 2004, the total number of municipalities having designated areas under the Noise Regulation Law was 2,089 (an increase of 18 cities, 7 towns and 4 villages), comprising approximately 66.2% of the total number of municipalities across Japan.
The total number of factories and business establishments registered under the Noise Regulation Law and subject to noise control in accordance with the Law (specified factories, etc.) was 207,950 as of March 31, 2004 (208,389 in FY 2002) (Tables 2). The number of on-site inspections of these specified factories conducted under this Law was 889 (879 in FY 2002), out of which 6 sites were issued improvement recommendations to redress the situation (5 sites in FY 2002). Improvement orders were issued to no factories or business establishments in FY 2003(no case in FY 2002). Administrative guidance was conducted in 924 cases (905 in FY 2002) (Table 3).
The total number of construction projects registered under the Noise Regulation Law and subject to noise control in accordance with the Law (specified construction projects) was 68,333 (64,694 in FY 2002) (Table 4). The number of on-site inspections of these specified construction projects conducted under the Law was 1,271 (1,256 in FY 2002), and 1 improvement recommendation was conducted (no case in FY 2002) and no improvement order was conducted (no case in FY 2002) to redress situations was served. Administrative guidance was conducted in 1,352 cases (versus 1,312 in FY 2002) (Table 5).
[LINK]