Quality of the Environment in Japan 1990
(2) Rising Reliance on Foreign Lumber
There were signs of a downswing in Japan's lumber self-sufficiency rate since it had stood at 87%, and the ratio broke the 30% level in 1988 (Fig. 1-3-10). At present, Japan is a prominent world lumber importer both in terms of quantity and amount, and according to the FAO's Statistical Yearbook on Forest Products, the nation's imports account for 12% of the world's total imports for all forest products (ranking second after the United States). Only in terms of lumber, Japan's imports stood at 38 % for lumber to be used by industry (ranking first in the world), 8% for products from sawn wood (third), 10% for wooden panels (third) and 11% for pulp from wood (third).
A check of the breakdown of lumber imported by Japan reveals that American lumber is greatest in volume, followed by South Pacific lumber, Northern Pacific (Soviet) lumber and New Zealand's lumber. By country, the United States and Malaysia overwhelmingly shared Japan' s imports.
Fig. 1-3-10 Trends in Japan's Timber Self.Sustenance Rate
Remarks: 1. Prepared according to the Forestry Agency's "Timber Supply-Demand Table."
2. Self-sustenance rate Domestic timber supply/Total timber supply× 100
When it comes to relations with the lumber of lauan and other broad-leaved trees, on which attention is forced for their ties with tropical forests, Japan accounts for about 50% of the world's total exports for the logs of tropical broad-leaved trees, about 10% for the lumber of tropical broad-leaved trees, and about 20% of the plywood of tropical broad-leaved trees. In recent years, there has been a rapid rise in the imports of sawn wood and plywood, and the forms of importation have been diversified (Fig. 1-3-11).
Fig. 1-3-11 Major Tropical Timber Exporting and Importing Countries in the World
Remarks : Prepared according to FAO "Forestry Product Statistical Yearbook"
In terms of sources from which Japan imports lumber, Malaysia and Indonesia used to be major exporters to Japan, but imports from Malaysia now account for upwards of 90% and 60% of the logs Malaysia exports are diverted to Japan. As for sawn wood, about 35% each comes from Indonesia and Malaysia and about 20% from the Philippines. Upwards of 90% of the plywood imported by Japan comes from Indonesia. Thus, South Pacific lumber which centers on that of Southeast Asia shares the greater portion of Japan's imports of the lumber of broad-leaved trees. A check of the use of imported South Pacific lumber indicates that about 75% of lumber is set aside for plywood and about 20% for lumbering, about 45% of sawn wood for building and about 20% for packing, and about 55% of plywood for concrete frames, ceiling boards and other building materials and civil-engineering purposes, and about 25% for furniture.
(3) Recycling of Lumber Resources in Everyday Life
In recent years, there have been growing attempts to grope for measures to utilize recycled lumber resources in the everyday life, as the people have taken an increasing interest in the environmental question.
One such attempt is the use of recycled waste paper. Given ongoing office automation and other factors, paper consumption in Japan has rapidly increased in recent years, and the sharp increase is at issue from the standpoint of a rise in the discharge of trash and the disposal of waste matter. It is also problematical as a waste of lumber resources, and there have appeared moves for the utilization of paper reproduced from waste paper as far as possible in place of paper newly produced from pulp.
In particular, administrative institutions are taking the lead in disseminating moves for the use of recycled paper for copying paper and computer printouts which are massively used in business offices. Up to now, 14 ministries and agencies and 43 prefectures and administrative ordinance-designated cities have begun to use recycled paper for copy-ing and other purposes. Those moves are also spreading in the private business sector.
A check of the procurement of resources by Japan's paper and pulp industry at present indicates that waste paper accounts for 50% of all resources for paper production, Japanese materials about 23%, imported materials about 17% and imported pulp about 10 %, suggesting that the rate of using waste paper in Japan is higher than in other industrialized countries. In recent years, nevertheless, there has been a tendency to favor quality paper, more lightweight and thinner, for magazines, books and the like, so that the demand of waste paper does not increase the way it should and it is difficult to manage waste paper-collecting businesses as the prices of waste paper hover low.
The utilization of waste paper contributes to a reduction in the volume of waste matter and the recycling of paper, as it stimulates the demand of waste paper and the recycling of paper. Elopes are pinned on the further utilization.
Incidentally, let us see the consumption of chopping sticks, which is frequently referred to as a typical form of timber consumption in Japan. The consumption of chopping sticks has increased in proportion to an expansion of food catering services and also due to other factors. In 1988, 20.5 billion pairs of chopping sticks were consumed in Japan (about 170 pairs per person a year).
A check of the breakdown of materials reveals that Japanese materials account for about 180,000 m3 (44%), imported materials 80,000 m3 (20%) and product imports 150,000 m3 (36%). The Japanese mate-rials include silver firs, abies, Japanese red pines, Japanese cedars and Japanese cypresses, among others, whereas most of the foreign mate-rials consist of silver firs, birches and the like. As for product imports, 4.4 billion pairs (54% of all product imports) come from China, which is followed by Indonesia with 1.6 billion pairs (20%), South Korea with 900 million pairs (11%) and 900 million pairs (11%) from the Philippines, and the species of trees include aspens, "shina"(Tilia japonica simk) and birches in China and South Korea, pines in Indonesia and GUBASU in the Philippines.
For the production of chopping sticks in most cases, tips which come out in the lumbering process and the species of trees which are soft and less durable are used, and it might be said in one aspect that lumber of the sort which cannot be used for purposes other than the production of chopping sticks is put to effective use. Nonetheless, an expansion of consumption culture of a throwaway type is undesirable, so that there is the need to take another look at the way chopping sticks are used with the growing interest in them as an existence familiar to us taken as a turning point.
(4) Situation of Forests in Japan
A check of the availability of forests in Japan shows that there exist about 25 million hectares of forests, or about 70% of the national land which measures 37 million hectares, and in terms of the forest rate (the rate of forests to the area of the national land), Japan is a promi-nent world forest country along with Finland with 69%, Brazil with 67% and Indonesia with 64%. Yet in another aspect, the area of forests per person in Japan stands at 0.12 hectare, less than a quarter of the world's mean (0.87 hectares).
The forests in Japan are made up of natural forests (26.9%), secondary forests (36.4%) and afforested areas (36.6%), and natural and secondary forests are on the downswing but reforested areas are on the upswing. Natural forests came into being and have sustained their survival on the basis of interrelations with climatic and other environ-mental conditions over long spans of time, being highly valuable as places for academic studies and other purposes.
A wide variety of flora is observed in natural forests, and the decrease of natural forests will sometimes lead to a reduction in the species of wildlife in the areas. The second National Surveys on the National Environment conducted by the Environment Agency include, among others, cases in which Himalayan black bears (Selenarctos thibetanus) got human society into trouble as they have disappeared or moved around in search of feed because of a disruption, retrenchment or aggravation of their habitat with a depletion in natural forests.
Moreover, the decrease in diversified natural forests makes spectacular sights for man's living environment monotonous. Though secondary forests were closely tied in with the everyday life as places for the production of firewood and charcoal and valuable as places for communion with familiar spectacular sights and nature and as a habitat of dogtooth violets (Erythronium japonicum) and other peculiar organ-isms, it has become difficult in recent years to hold communion with those forests as they have not been appropriately controlled or as they have been turned into housing and other areas in the waves of urbaniza-tion.
Furthermore, a check of the coverage of greenery, such as green tracts of land, in the case of Tokyo shows, as indicated in Table 1-3-12, that suburban forests which are of importance to urbanites as green familiar to them are on the downtrend.
On the other hand, a check of the accumulation of forest resources indicates that forests centering on planted forests increase at a rate of 76 million m3 a year on the average. But as planted forests in Japan were developed on a large scale after 1945, forests of young trees (those less than 35 years after their plantation) which are subjects of nursing and thinning account for upwards of 80% of all artificial forests, suggesting that they are in a phase of growth (Fig. 1-3-13). In the future, those artificial forests, which correspond to people born in the postwar baby boom period of 1947-49, will come in the main felling period and there will be a gradual rise in the capacity of supplying domestic lumber.
Table 1-3-12 Trends in Green Coverage Rate in Tokyo
Remarks: 1. Tokyo's Green Doubling Program.
2. The total for Tokyo does not include data for its islands.
On the other hand, the production of Japanese forestry has remained stagnant in recent years, and a check of log output indicates that about 50 million m3 was produced a year around 1965 but output began to drop with a peak in 1967, leveling off at 31-33 million m3. The area of afforestation has also decreased year by year since the latter half of the 1955-64 period, down 40% or so in 1988 from 10 years before. The production of Japanese forestry remains stagnant for lumber prices hover low and the costs for forestry management are on the upswing (Fig. 1-3-14).
When it comes to forestry manpower, the number of workers in forestry has decreased year by year, chalking up a drop of upwards of 40% from 1965 to 1985. By age, 34-year-olds and the younger accounted for 36%, those at 35-54 47% and 55-year-olds and the older 17% in 1965, whereas in 1985, 34-year-olds and the younger accounted for less than 10% and 55-year-olds and the older about 40%.
Fig. 1-3-13 Area of Artificial Forests and Area of Forests for Thinning
Note 1: The figures are those as of the end of March 1986.
Note 2: Age bracket: the ages are classified into brackets in terms of five years: to wit, Age Bracket I include 1-to 5-year-olds, Age Bracket II encompasses 6-to 1O-year-olds, and so forth.
Source : Data from the Forestry Agency.
Fig. 1-3-14 Change of Factors Around Forestry Production Activities
Source: Bank of Japan "Wholesale Price Indices," Japan Real Estate Research Institute "Survey on Prices of Standing Trees in the Mountains," Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries "Timber Price Survey," Ministry of Labor "Survey on Wages by Forestry Worker" and business data from the Forestry Agency.
Note: The figures for the afforestation and sapling costs are those for the fiscal year.
Remarks: Data from the Forestry Agency.
There is concern that the stagnant forestry production will not only deter the output of forestry products, especially in planted forests, but produce a grave impact on the full display of multilateral functions as well. Fig. 1-3-15 shows how thinning has been done in recent years. In five years from 1985, thinning was urgently required for 1.9 million hectares (about 380,000 hectares a year on the average), but as thinning had actually increased year by year, it came to 310,000 hectares in 1988 and in four years from 1985, to 1,170,000 hectares.
Unless thinning, lopping and other types of nursing work are properly done, trees will become readily breakable with their trunks lean and tall, thus making the spread of vermin and the outbreak of fires highly likely. With a marked drop in shrubs and grass around trees, the topsoil will wash away, thereby increasing the danger of a drop in the water retaining capacity and a landslide or flood. At present, warnings are issued on the possible occurrence of hillside collapses, landslides and other disasters at 180,000 places (forests) across the nation, and there are signs of a increase in their number. Forests which have become sparse despite their designation as reserved forests and those which are unable to give full play to their capacity due to their poorly developed roots account for 11% (about 900,000 hectares) of all reserved forests.
Fig. 1-3-15 Area of Trees Requiring Urgent Thinning and Actual Thinning
Remarks: Prepared according to the White Paper on Forestry.
3. Approach to Pertinent Forest Management
(1) Global Approach to Conservation of Tropical Rain Forests
As it came to light in the surveys conducted by the FAO and other institutions that tropical forests were decreasing at a rapid pace, there is concern that the depletion of tropical forests will not only threaten the lives of inhabitants in the tropical region but bring about adverse impacts on global ecosystems of the globe with decreases in the species of wildlife and changes in the circulation of carbon, among others, and the conservation of forest resources centering on those in tropical forests is a matter of interest to the whole world.
In Our Common Future, a chapter is set aside on the extinction of biological species at an unprecedentedly fast pace in conjunction with the depletion of tropical forests.
At the International Conference on Sustainable Development in Ottawa in 1986, the Paris conference where attention was focused on the environment of the dry zones in Europe and North Africa, the Bellagio Conference on Tropical Forests in 1987 and other high-level confer-ences, the conservation of tropical forests was taken up as a main theme. At the Tokyo Conference on the Conservation of the Global Environment in Tokyo in September 1989, too, the conservation of tropical forests was a main theme.
As the framework for the conservation and appropriate develop-ment of tropical forests with. the coordination of industrialized nations and U. N. institutions, among others, a Tropical Forest Action Program (TFAP) was formulated and adopted at the seventh meeting of the FAO Tropical Forest Committee in June 1985. This program is designed to step up actions for an improvement of rural people's lives, to improve slash-and-burn and migratory farming methods, and to increase fuel supply for its more efficient utilization, among others, presenting action strategies for each priority sector.
Later in the collaborative work of many countries, the formula-tion of nation-specific tropical forest action programs was under way to translate the TFAP into action. They had been formulated in 22 devel-oping countries (Nepal, Fiji and Papua New Guinea in Asia, nine countries in Africa and 10 nations in Latin America) and their formula-tion was also under way in yet another 32 countries (as of the end of July 1989).
As an international institution to step up international coopera-tion between producer and consumer nations in (1) the promotion of surveys and researches, (2) improvements in market information, (3) increased processing in producer nations and (4) afforestation and forest management, among others, as they are tied in with forests and lumber in the tropical region, an International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) was established in 1985. With a membership of 44 nations at present, including 19 producer countries and 25 consumer nations (in-cluding the EC), the organization is engaged in stepping up activities which center on the nursing of forests in producer nations, utilization of unused tree species and encouragement of lumber processing, among others.
With cooperation rendered through those international confer-ences and international institutions, international accord is being made on the sustainable utilization of tropical forests, and the task now is how to associate such accord with actual actions. The items on which international agreement has thus far been reached may be summed up as follows with the Tropical Forest Action Program as the core:
(1) To improve land utilization in developing countries--Population increases, poverty and the lack of farmland for food production acceler-ate a decrease in forests. For an alleviation, there is the need to grope for measures with which productivity may be enhanced while working for a stabilization of the environment, such as by stepping up land utilization measures which include, among others, improvements in the production system for higher agricultural productivity, the introduction of agro-forestry in which agriculture, forestry, stock raising and the like are combined, soil conservation, flood prevention and the assurance of lumber demand for feed and fuels.
(2) To develop the forestry of developing countries--For an efficient utilization of forests as the basis for a sustainable development of developing countries, it is necessary to foster and promote the paper and pulp industry and forest product industries, such as the production of furniture with hemp palms and rattan, and to assure job and income opportunities for inhabitants.
(3) To replenish energy demand in developing countries--The lack of firewood and charcoal in developing countries gives rise to a stagnation of the industrial performance, malnutrition among children and other issues, and the situation is such that there is no alternative but to go in for an excessive felling of trees. There is the need to step up the production of fuel resources with agro-forestry and highly productive afforestation at places where trees are felled, and to diminish pressures on forests by working for the propagation of efficient kilns and cooking stoves and that of easy-to-use and low-cost stoves, among others, and by epochally raising the coefficient of using firewood and charcoal.
(4) To save forests as a precious ecosystem from haphazard settle-ment and development--For this, national parks and forest conserva-tion areas will be designated, wherever necessary. At the same time, areas for academic studies and those for the observation of ecosystems by ordinary people will be named to enhance local employment and upgrade the livelihood infrastructure.
(5) To formulate and implement sustainable forest utilization pro-grams and streamline systems and organizations for comprehensive surveys and researches, training, propagation and dissemination in regard to agriculture and forestry.
As the premise to the above approach, it is recognized:
(6) That people in areas with forests must take the lead in properly conserving and utilizing tropical forests in a manner to satisfy their basic desires, and that the cooperation of industrialized nations is required from the standpoint of international interdependence ; and
(7) That surveys and researches must be stepped up on the conditions of tropical forest resources, reasonable assessments on their values and impacts from their depletion, among others, and that accurate informa-tion must be disseminated to people both in developed and developing countries.
To step up such comprehensive approach, talent, time and enor-mous money are required. The FAO says that an estimated total of $8 billion is required from 1987 to 1991 to deter in an efficient manner the depletion of tropical forests.
(2) Approach in Developing Countries
The governments of developing countries themselves are working for the evolution of a wide variety of policy measures for the future conservation of forests which are of higher value to people in those countries than anything else. Typical is the propagation and promotion of agro-forestry (compound management of agriculture and forestry). In Thailand, for example, the government (the Royal Forestry Bureau) is taking the lead in stepping up agro-forestry under what is known as a "formula of forest villages," where a hamlet is made up of up to 100 families to plant teaks in 1.6 hectares of land for forestry a family per year, they are allowed to cultivate upland rice, corn and other crops between rows of afforestation for their own consumption as they desire, and bonuses are paid, depending on the growth of their tweaks. In those villages, meetings are held with the presence of the leaders of hillock tribes, local administrators and monastic Buddhists, and locals are able to have access to the supply of water and electricity, free primary education and physicians' mobile mass health screenings.
Agro-forestry is implemented in many developing countries, and their form widely varies, depending on the entity of its implementation, the species of trees grown and the species of crops cultivated, among others.
In addition, measures, such as reforestation at places where farming in the slash-and-burn method is over and the designation of forest conservation areas, are enforced, and the conservation areas designated in the tropical region total about 860, measuring upwards of 100 million hectares in area. In the future, it is necessary to increase conservation areas and replenish their control and management, such as the prevention of illegal intrusions for cultivation and other purposes and poaching.
Moreover, in order to work for a meaningful utilization pf forest resources in developing countries as the basis of their sustainable development, it is necessary to foster the forest product industry and process products into ones with higher values-added for exports. For this, there are moves for the upbringing and promotion of the domestic wood processing, paper and pulp industries and for controls on the exports of logs and less processed products.
When it comes to Southeast Asian nations with which Japan is closely tied in, Thailand put a ban on log exports in 1977, followed by Indonesia in January 1986 and the Philippines in August 1986, Papua New Guinea bans the exports of rosewood and other resources. As for lumbering, Indonesia prohibited the exports of less processed products in a specified category of tree species in 1989, whereas the Philippines banned the exports of sawn wood in July 1989, excluding wooden products for buildings and other final products. The states of Sabah and Sarawak in Malaysia, from which Japan imports 90% of logs from broad-leaved trees, has tightened controls on log exports, given deplet-ing resources and the need to foster processing industries in the states.
As a result, conspicuous changes have appeared in the trade structure of a number of developing countries (Fig. 1-3-16).
Fig. 1-3-16 Changes in Indonesian Timber Trade
Remarks: Prepared according to FAO "Forestry Product Statistical Yearbook".
(3) Japan's Approach
Japan has continued to make contributions to the conservation of forest resources in a global dimension at bilateral levels and through international institutions.
Particularly for the conservation of ecosystems in tropical forests abundant with diversified biological species and genes, Japan has ren-dered cooperation, such as in structural studies on ecosystems in tropi-cal rain forests in Malaysia and Thailand and surveys on the conserva-tion and utilization of mangrove forests in Thailand and has cooperated in surveys for the conservation of wildlife in Malaysia and other coun-tries, among others. In the future, Japan is poised to pigeonhole the findings of the surveys and researches done in the past and provide support, such as the preparation of manuals for the conservation of nature, so that it may help developing countries formulate and promote programs for the conservation of nature, including tropical forests, by themselves.
For the conservation and development of tropical forests, among others, Japan has continued to render cooperation in foreign forestry, which centers on technical cooperation under a project formula, cooper-ation in the form of gratuitous funds, cooperation in the form of onerous funds and the like. In offering cooperation under the project formula, the dispatch of specialists, the acceptance of trainees and the offer of equipment and materials, among others, are organically combined for developing countries from which requests are made to Japan, and 14 projects are implemented in 11 countries in Africa, Asia and South America, primarily those in Southeast Asia, in broad sectors, such as personnel training for the development and transfer of technologies for the development of forests, the promotion of social forestry and the like.
Japan is also rendering positive cooperation through the FAO, the ITTO and other international institutions active in sectors associated with forests and forestry. It contributes trust funds and dispatches specialists to the FAO to promote the TFAP. As the host country of the ITTO with its head office in Yokohama and also as the world's largest contributor of subscriptions at will, which are required for its manage-ment, Japan is positively contributing to the promotion of its project performance, including suggestions on a wide variety of projects.
For the conservation of domestic forests, areas where the condi-tions of wildlife are sustained with little human influence are designated as "wildness areas," and forests and other areas most of which consti-tute excellent natural forests are designed as "nature conservation areas" under the Nature Conservation Law. The Natural Parks Law provides a system under which to promote the conservation and utiliza-tion of areas with excellent natural scenic spots. Under this law, 27.9% of all natural forests are designated as national and quasi-national parks to take pertinent conservation measures.
Under the Forestry Law, about one-third of forests are designat-ed as reserved forests to foster water sources and maintain and promote public-good functions, such as the prevention of earth and sand effluxes, and the system of authorization on the development of forest areas and other systems are quite instrumental in efforts to conserve forests. Besides, in response to the people's mounting call for the conservation of natural forests with wildlife in the state-owned forests, the designa-tion of areas for the protection of forest ecosystems is made for the reorganization and replenishment of the system of reserved forests.
In the various programs worked out by the government in the past, emphasis was put on expanded afforestation, in which natural forests would be converted into artificial forests with higher productiv-ity, but as the understanding was enhanced about the functions of forests for public good, such as the conservation of the national land, the people's health care and rest and the preservation of nature, it was made a target to comprehensively and highly give play to the multilateral functions possessed by forests.
Under the Fourth Comprehensive National Land Development Program formulated in 1987, for example, the importance of forests as assets for the people was stressed, forests were classified into four types --natural forests deep in the mountains, artificial forests, mountains close to villages and suburban forests --to respond to the people's increasingly sophisticated and diversified needs, and the basic direction for the utilization, conservation and pertinent coordination of forests, depending on their form, was manifested.
In the Basic Program on Forest Resources revised in 1987, it was made a target to give much play to the various functions possessed by forests, and it was decided to accomplish the target with the promotion of business in multile-layered forests, prolongation of the felling season, replenishment of business in natural forests and other measures, and it is decided to work for an activation of production in forestry which is placed in difficult conditions and to accurately respond to the people's diversified requirements in a long-term perspective.
4. Future Policy Evolution for Sustainable Utilization of Forest Resources
As one of the world's industrialized countries and also as one of the countries closely tied in with the resources of tropical forests, in particular, while holding ties of interdependence with tropical countries through trade and other means, Japan has to take the lead in grappling with the conservation and development of forests.
(1) Strengthening of International Framework
Whether the Tropical Forest Action Program which is under way and the ITTO's activities will prove successful depends on an active approach on the part of the governments of developing nations and the mobilization of manpower and monetary resources by the government of each country. For this, there is the need to grapple with this issue in a coordinative manner with a common understanding by the whole world. Japan must take the initiative in the formation of an interna-tional consensus on a sustainable utilization of forests and contribute to a strengthening of the framework for a sustainable utilization of forests, such as by stepping up cooperation in the ITTO's activities and grap-pling in many sectors with the formulation of national tropical forest action programs and their steady promotion.
In coming to grips with the conditions of forests around the world, there is the need to monitor them throughout the world in the same method, and it is necessary that Japan should contribute to a strengthening of the framework in this sector by making effective use of the know-how cultivated in various surveys, let alone the Basic Survey on the Conservation of the Natural Environment (National Consensus on Greenery), and satellite observation technology.
(2) Promotion of Basic Research and Effective Help
Along with the promotion of surveys and researches in basic sectors, such as the grasp of the present situation of forest resources and the influences produced by their depletion, it is necessary to step up surveys and researches in a broad range of sectors, such as the way forest management ought to be, technology for the reproduction of forests, the development of technology in the forest product industry, including the use of unused species of trees, and a more efficient utilization of energy in developing countries.
As regards to the regeneration of forests, it was stated in the Noordwijk Declaration that studies would be conducted on the provi-sional target of balancing increases and decreases in forests by the end of this century and increasing forests by 12 million hectares a year in the early next century. As there are conditions which make the regenera-tion of forests difficult, such as severe soil and climate conditions in the tropical region, though there are strong calls from developing countries, there is the need to work for the further development and transfer of technology for the recovery of forests in harmony with nature's eco-systems, when it comes to methods for the selection of tree species and the fostering of forests. It is also necessary to take more powerful measures for the establishment and management of areas for the conservation of forests and natural parks and the preservation of wildlife, among others.
In the implementation of those various measures, it is necessary to work for the promotion of bilateral aid, while paying heed to the fact that priority is not necessarily given to calls for aid in the conservation and development of forests and the ability of sharing cost burdens is scarce in aid-receiving nations.
At the International Mangrove Conference in December 1989, it was decided to place the head office of the International Mangrove Ecosystem Association in Okinawa for the worldwide conservation of mangroves, and surveys and studies are promoted on the conservation of mangroves and their sustainable utilization with the cooperation of the U. N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Japan Chapter of the International Mangrove Ecosystem Association, among others. To the enhancement of agricultural produc-tivity and the promotion of afforestation projects by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and private businesses, it is necessary to provide support in the flank. From this point of view, a system of reserves against losses, such as increased investments in afforestation abroad by the private sector, has been expanded.
(3) Review of Lumber Trade and Investments in Developing Countries
There is the need to continue supporting the ITTO established to work for international cooperation between producer and consumer nations in the tropical forest lumber economy and step up, in particular, measures to raise the degree to which forest products are processed and their values-added.
It is also desirable that investments be promoted in thedevelop-ment and promotion of forest product industry of the sort which is commensurate with the sustainable utilization of forests in developing countries. Given a mounting interest in the depletion of tropical forests, a number of trading corporations have begun to try to grasp facts about forests in the tropical region and make studies on the sustainable utilization of tropical forests and the execution of afforestation projects in the region.
There has been a trend to treat the depletion of forestsin developing countries rather as a mere socioeconomic issue for them, but the manner in which consideration is given to the sustainable utilization and conservation of tropical forests should be supported in the future, too, in regard to trade, investment and aid, among others.
(4) Promotion of Efficient Utilization and Recycling of Lumber Resources
The lumber resources are recyclable, and the amount of energy required for their processing is relatively smaller than for plastics and other materials. Their treatment as waste matter is also relatively easier. But the excessive felling of trees with a lack of consideration leads to soil erosion and degeneration and causes issues, suchas the extinction of wildlife, as we have seen earlier, and the increase in paper consumption leads to an increase in the discharge of trash, posing a serious problem from the standpoint of the treatment of waste matter. An unlimited consumption of lumber resources is not naturally condona-ble, and their moderate utilization and the promotion of theirrecycling are desirable.
As we have seen in 2, some administrative institutions and private businesses are stepping up the category-specified recovery of waste paper and the substitution of quality paper with recycled waste paper, and some retail shops have begun to refrain from excessively packing goods for sale. But there is the need to further promote thosemeasures.
Particularly as regards the utilization of lumber from tropical broad-leaved trees, the marked depletion of which is at issue,it is necessary to strive to use it in such a manner that the properties inherent to tropical broad-leaved trees may be put to full use, such as in the production of top-grade furniture and materials for interior decora-tions, or things with high values-added, for which substitutesare not readily available. There is also the need to formulate measures for the promotion and encouragement of systems, such as the formation of recycling markets where furniture and other things which are no longer required may be mended and sold to those who want to have them.
(5) Promotion of Conservation, Development and Promotion of Domestic Forests
The conservation of forest resources is something which must be considered in a global perspective, as is evident from the Economic Declaration at the Arche Summit, among others. Particularly in the Noordwijk Declaration, it is stated that there is the need to encourage the appropriate control of forests in the tropical and temperate zones and evolve active forestry programs to work for a net increase in the area of forests around the world. Already in the United States, Presi-dent George Bush has announced plans to replant one billion trees a year in areas under private ownership. Noting such international agreements, Japan must strive to conserve and develop domestic forests.
While the everyday life is alienated from forests, high hopes are pinned on the function of forests to conserve the national land, and there is a mounting desire to seek green on the people's part. There is the need to revert forests, from which the national life is often alienated in the midst of modernization and urbanization, to something which is closely tied in with the national life with the creation of chances to hold communion with forests, such as the observation of nature and hiking, the people's involvement in the control of forests and the donation of funds, among others.
Furthermore, now that the depletion of tropical forests is posed as an environmental problem for the whole world, Japan, the world's largest importer of tropical lumber, is compelled to review the conven-tional ways in which lumber is consumed and traded and to expand the utilization of domestic lumber.
When it comes to the way forests ought to be in Japan, it is now necessary to take note of such background, unfold debate among the people in a long-term and broad perspective and powerfully promote measures. In a nutshell, there is the need to take note of the natural and historical features of each forest and respond to such requirements as lumber production, the conservation of the national land, the cultural and educational utilization of forests and the conservation of the national land, among others.
For natural and other forests which form the "spine" of the national land, as is the case with mountain ridges, it is necessary to work for a prudent coordination, depending on local conditions, between their treatment based on conservation from the standpoint of the conservation of the natural environment and the national land, on the one hand, and requirements, such as for the promotion of the systematic production of lumber with the use of the power of nature. Particularly as regards those which should be controlled with attention paid to their conservation, such as forests which are highly natural, there is the need to work for their pertinent conservation as the people's precious assets with the promotion of a wide variety of measures, such as the natural environment conservation system, the natural park system and the reserved forest system.
In respect of secondary forests near villages, which were closely tied in with the people's everyday lives, there are calls for their maintenance and conservation as forests, while paying heed to the conservation of the natural environment and the national land and working out methods for their comprehensive utilization, as there are calls for their utilization as places for learning by pupils and students and also as points of interchanges in the mountain villages with cities.
As regards forests which remain on the outskirts of cities, it is necessary to make it a basic to conserve them from the standpoints of the conservation of the living environment and education and to develop them as places where people may be able to hold close communion with green. In Hyogo Prefecture, for example, plans were drawn so that 100 million trees would be replanted for four years from 1983. In Tokyo's Green Doubling Program, the target is to bring to 200 million the total number of trees in its built-up areas toward the 21st century, and systematic efforts are being made for the qualitative and quantitative development of greenery. It is important that those efforts will be continued and will spread to other districts.
Sharing two-fifths of the area of forests, artificial forests have reached the watermark, and their accumulation is rising. How to utilize their stock as an asset for the State has now become an important issue. For this reason, it is an urgent task to develop the forestry production system, such as the fostering of the basis for forestry production and the upbringing of people who will bear it on their shoulders, systematically carry out thinning and other types of nursing work, keep the quality of forests for the production of good lumber and prevent a drop in the control level of forests, and work for an activation of forestry and mountain villages which are in charge of the control of forests. In addition, it is necessary to diversify and prolong felling ages so that lumber, diversified both in terms of items and quality, may be offered whenever occasion calls.
Moreover, there are calls for a further strengthening of measures in sectors, such as the enhancement of the people's orientation toward lumber, the development of a stable supply system and cost cuts in the production, distribution and processing of materials, and for efforts to increase the supply of domestic lumber.
Chapter2. Toward Actions Friendly To The Earth--Starting With Things Around Us
In the preceding chapter, we take up a wide variety of environ-mental issues in conjunction with the utilization of energy and forest resources which are closely tied in with our daily lives and Japan's economic performance in the world, analyze them at length and grope for the direction in which the environment policy ought to proceed in the future. Here again, let us go back to the issues as a whole with which the global environment is confronted, and we will dwell on how Japan, as a member of the world community, ought to deal with those impor-tant issues which threaten our common future.
In regard to the basic concept on grappling with the global environment issues and on Japan's contributions to the world, our doctrine was brought forward in the White Paper on the Environment the year before last (the 1988 edition of the White Paper on the Environ-ment). In the following, therefore, we will make clear, on the basis of subsequent developments in this direction, ought to carry out the practi-cal measures each section of society, such as the State, local govern-ments, private businesses or entrepreneurs and citizens ought to carry out, for the establishment of a strategy to respond to the environment problems and a new code of "the environmental ethic."
Incidentally, the way development aid for "sustainable develop-ment" common to them will be discussed in a separate section.
I. Comprehensive Policy Response and Leadership--the State's Role
The global environment issues are so grave as to threaten the very foundation of mankind's survival and grave tasks with which mankind's society jointly has to cope. As we have seen in Section I, Chapter 1, the global environment issues interlock in forming a group of issues, and with the joint cooperation of international society, there is the need to comprehensively step up various measures in a broader and longer-term perspective.
In particular, Japan is responsible for positively taking measures for conservation of the global environment and, in fact, equipped with a technological and economic capability of doing so, as it has accom-plished a rapid economic development and is now one of the greatest economic powers, utilizing the sound global environment and various natural resources which it provides. It is necessary that the Japanese Government which intends to make Japan a "nation contributing to the world" should take up conservation of the global environment as an important policy task for the nation and take the global initiative in realizing "sustainable development" on a global scale.
As we have seen in 2 and 3, the preceding chapter, questions on the global environmental problems are closely tied in not only with Japan's performance abroad but with its socioeconomic performance at home as well. It is necessary for the Japanese government to strengthen the comprehensive approach based on pollution prevention and environ-ment management in administration on the environment, while incor-porating the perspective of environmental conservation in various policy sectors concerned, such as economic policy, to realize an energy-and resource-saving society.
Moreover, it might be said after all that the key for the global environment conservation is how each member of society assumes toward environment issues which exist around them and what sort of response he or she makes. On this score, too, it is important for the government to take the initiative by itself in reducing environmental loads and to enhance the consciousness of people by encouraging the dissemination of information about the environment and environmental education, and to strive to establish a code of environment ethic and a life-style for the member of the earth.
1. Formulation of Basic Strategy and Comprehensive Promotion of Policy
The nation's basic recognition of global environmental issues and its basic policy are clarified in the agreement of the first Council of Ministers for Global Environment Conservation which was held on June 20, 1989 [see 1-(2), Section I, the previous chapter]. As regards mea-sures the government ought to step up on global environment conserva-tion, it is necessary to start with the 6 items contained in the agreement and work for their further translation into action and evolution, and at the same time to clearly position them as an important target of internal administration and foreign policy for Japan toward the 21st century.
Particularly on issues for which an international framework has yet to be determined, such as measures against global warming and the protection of genie resources (sustenance of the diversity of wildlife), and in those solution Japan's leadership is required, there is the 'need for the government to promptly formulate a long-term and comprehensive response strategy.
Next, for the promotion of pragmatic measures in each sector of the aforementioned 6 items, it is necessary to work for their steady and appropriate implementation with the formulation of a program and other means.
Actually, in regard to the second and third items contained in the understanding--that is, the promotion of surveys, researches, observa-tion, monitoring and technology development, it was decided on the basis of the agreement reached at the second conference of related ministers that an annual comprehensive promotion program would be formulated on surveys and researches, observation, monitoring and technology development at the start of each fiscal year, and that the conference would receive an annual report on the implementation of each fiscal year's program and its results.
In the future, it is expected that the government will continuously carry out the various scientific surveys, researches, monitoring and technology development which are based on the comprehensive promo-tion program which the government's related ministries and agencies will formulate keeping close liaison with one another.
As regards other items in the agreement, it is important to formulate a program which will show clear targets and a series of pragmatic measures according to this program, and the government's related ministries and agencies, local governments, private businesses and all concerned will roll into one in promoting, and cooperating in, the implementation of those items according to the program.
On this score, the National Environment Policy Program prepar-ed and released to the public by the Dutch Government in May 1989 serves as a reference. The program enumerates the Dutch government' s policy measures on all sorts of environmental issues both at home and abroad, including problems on the global environment. In a long-term perspective extending to 2010, it makes clear the policy ideals and targets over the program, which is coming to an end in 1994, and determines plans for the implementation of circumstantial measures which encompass broad sectors, including the strengthening of various controls for achievement of the targets, researches and technology development, financial investments and loans, revision of the tax sys-tem, the propagation to, and the enhancement of, the people, etc.
Presented to the Dutch parliament, the program was taken up in a great national debate and was later approved by the legislature after the Cabinet's resignation en bloc and a general election. Various policy measures are put into force according to the program.
2. Drastic Strengthening of Energy-and Resource-saving Measures
As we have seen in Chapter 1, the promotion of energy-saving measures not only is useful as measures against air pollution with nitrogen oxides and other chemicals, acid rain and cities' heat island phenomenon, and for controls over, and the prevention of, global warming, but contributes to a stable supply of energy as well. Some of those measures are instrumental in the diversification of energy sources and cost cuts.
In Japan, too, various measures, let alone the enactment of an energy-saving law, have been energetically implemented since the first oil crisis in 1973. As a result, improvements have been made to the point where Japan is counted as one of the world's developed countries with the least consumption of energy per unit of GDP (the prime GDP unit for energy). Since the beginning of the second half of the 1980s, Japan's energy demand has once again climbed to the point where the elastic GDP value exceeds 1 against the backdrop of falling oil prices, the rising yen and the climbing marketing tone due to a boost in domestic demand, etc.
In the nation, there is the need to energetically step up various energy-saving measures in order to contribute to measures against air pollution by nitrogen oxides, in which no signs of an improvement are visible primarily in the major urban areas, and to enable Japan to take the lead in coping with global warming. For this, it is important, not only in the energy consumption phase such as industry, transportation, business and other sectors but in the energy supply or conversion phase such as heat and electric power, to explore every possibility of more efficiently and sophisticatedly utilizing energy, such as the effective utilization of enormous volumes of energy discarded as waste heat at present, and to promote those energy-saving measures from the stand-point of conservation of the environment.
The efficient utilization of energy and the promotion of recycling contribute to making smaller the waste generation and the loads on the regional environment and are tied in with conservation of the global environment by means of cuts in the necessity of resources import from abroad. They also serve to save energy in the production utilizing those resources and the consumption and utilization of the products.
As we have already seen, Japan might be described as going far ahead of other countries in the efficiency of resources use, in the phases of individual products and the manufacture of products and in the recovery and recycling rate in the phases of consumption and disuse. On the other hand, there are aspects which run counter to the promotion of recycling, such as the sales of disposal products and the shift from recyclable containers to disposal containers.
There is the need to build a social system in which manufacturers will give full consideration to the environment already in the develop-ment and manufacture of products and strive for the efficient utilization of resources and energy and for the development and dissemination of durable products of an energy-saving type. In addition, this system must ensure that dealers and consumers will restrain the excessive consump-tion and the use of disposal merchandise and cooperate in making them reduction, recovering and recycling waste.
Moreover, it is only natural that further efforts should be exerted to develop technologies for conservation of the environment and estab-lish a code of ethics so as to convert Japanese society per se into an energy-and resource-saving type in a broader and longer-term perspec-tive and promote the building of towns and districts friendly to the environment, but it is also necessary to take another look at Japan's economic structure, urban structure and transportation system.
3. Integration of Environmental Conservation with Economic Policy
The Economic Declaration of the Arche G-7 Summit says "Environmental protection is integral to issues such as trade, develop-ment, energy, transport, agriculture and economic planning. Therefore, environmental considerations must be taken into account in economic decision-making. In fact, good economic policies and good environmen-tal policies are mutually reinforcing." Moreover, in the Chairman's summary at the Tokyo Conference on Conservation of the Global Environment held in September in 1989 under the sponsorship of the Japanese Government, it was stressed that "the sustainable develop-ment calls for a review of not only the conventional framework of the world economy, such as trade, direct investment, international financing and official development aid, but each country's domestic economic, financial and monetary policies."
Nonetheless, the realization of sustainable development is not an easy task even in industrialized countries including Japan, to say the least of developing countries which are troubled with a vicious cycle of poverty and environmental disruption. It is still more difficult to work for a stable development of the world economy in which relations of interdependence have become all the deeper, while the economic gap between North and South continues to widen. As the first step toward the realization of stable development, it might be necessary, more than anything else, to check and see if the various policies, institutions and systems associated with the nation's economic management, energy use and resources management are really in line with the ideals of sustaina-ble development.
Certain indicators are required for an assessment of economic policy in a perspective of sustainable development, but gross national product (GNP) and gross domestic product (GDP) which are broadly used in the world are not necessarily adequate. In Japan, an indicator of net national welfare (NNW) which would take account of damage from environmental pollution and costs for preventive measures was devel-oped by the Economic Planning Agency but was not broadly adopted later. The Arche G7 Summit called on the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to develop a new indicator which would indicate the integration of the economy with the environment, and Japan should positively take part in, and contribute to, the OECD' s study work.
What draws attention in this conjunction is the concept of a "natural resources account" at which France, Norway, Sweden and other countries have had a try for the last several years and which is being studied by the United Nations and the OECD. In this system, the existing volume and quality of land (soil), forests, lakes and marshes, fossil fuels and the like are assessed as a stock of environmental resources according to a material or pecuniary yardstick to quantita-tively express how the balance changes between the start and the end of one year (or a period of more than one year). As things now stand, this indicator can not take the place of the GNP indicator but is used as a reference in the economic policy decisions along with a computation of the national economy with GNP.
4. Enhancement of the People's Consciousness and Establishment of Environment Ethics
The Tokyo Conference on Conservation of the Environment held in September in 1989 under the sponsorship of the Japanese Government called for a review of the wide variety of economic and social activities which were evolved in developed countries, including the life-styles, and appealed for the establishment of a code of environment ethics. It was stated in the Noordwijk Declaration in November that "all countries, especially industrialized countries should recognize the need to make their socioeconomic activities and life-styles environmentally sound." In the aforementioned agreement of the ministerial council, it is declared that there is the need to "endeavor to carry out socioeconomic activities in a manner which has less burden on the global environment, such as the promotion of resource conservation and saving energy" and "furthermore, we will pursue the awareness and education programs of the global environmental protection, since it is indispensable to obtain the understanding and cooperation of the public in all walks of life."
In the understanding of the Ministerial Council, which came before those conferences, it is declared that "efforts will be made so that economic society may be managed in a manner with few loads on the global environment, such as the promotion of resource-and energy-saving" and that "dissemination and enhancement will be promoted for conservation of the global environment, as the understanding and coop-eration of each segment of the people are indispensable."
For creation of society of a resource-and energy-saving type, it is necessary for the State to promote and strengthen various resource-and energy-saving measures, as we have stated in 3, earlier. On the other hand, it is important to give policy guidance to each one of the entrepre-neurs and people who support those measures so that they may behave themselves with a full understanding of relations between their own activities and lives and the environment and positively take part in activities for improvements in the regional and global environment.
As we will state later (see Section IV), although the people's interest in issues on the environment is high, the interest is liable not to be tied in with their own action and support to the actions taken by other people. Many reasons are conceivable for this, but it may be pointed out that they are not familiar with practical methods for this implementation and that the sources of information about the environ-ment and the activities of NGOs are not fully known.
Given this situation, it is necessary that the State should strive, by itself or through local governments and NGOs, to disseminate accurate information about the environment in general, including issues on the global environment ; to make clear the action guideline based on the new code of the ethic environment both for businesses and the people; and to show practical methods for action. The measures which are to be introduced in Section II through Section V might be described as the first series of steps.
It is also important to establish a system for this. The Environ-ment Agency has continued to prepare a guideline for local governments on the promotion of environmental education, compile a wide variety of manuals and build strategic points for the dissemination of information about the environment. In the supplementary budget for fiscal 1989, all prefectures and administrative ordinance-designated cities were subsid-ized with a total of ¥11.6 billion as part of the cost to establish a regional environment conservation fund which would be required for such activities as the propagation to community residents of the knowl-edge about environment conservation and for the evolution of activities for the regional environment conservation, such as support to practical conservation activities.
With the operation of the profits accrued from the fund, for example, the infrastructure for activities to conserve the regional environment is developed, such as the establishment of a Regional Environment Center as a strategic pivot for activities to conserve the regional environment, and support is given to activities for the encour-agement of resource-recycling and energy-saving in the daily life. With those efforts forming the core, it is hoped that environmental education and practical activities will be evolved with a full incorporation of the perspective of the global environment which strikes root in the commu-nity.
II. From Communities to the Globe--Approach by Local Governments
From the fact that the global environment issues stem in many instances from an accunmulation of daily activities done by businesses and each one of us in our respective communities, local governments may well play a significant role in conserving the global environment. Directly confronted with a wide variety of pollution problems, a degra-dation of the living environment and the disruption of the natural environment, community residents took the lead in working for improvements and solutions, and their local governments also take a part in response to their intentions and desires. In responding to the global environment problems, the approach made by local governments and community residents might be important.
In fact, many local governments have begun to take the lead in coping with the global environment issues in these years. The findings of a survey conducted by the Environment Agency in October 1989 on 47 prefectures and 11 administrative ordinance-designated cities across the country indicate that 51 local governments, or 88% of respondents, were coping with the global environment issues in some way or the other at that time. Of them, Hokkaido, Tokyo, Nagano Prefecture, Mie Prefecture and Osaka Prefecture had organizations for liaison and consultations between related bureaus and departments to comprehen-sively cope with the global environment issues (later within the same fiscal year, Kanagawa Prefecture, Aichi Prefecture, Yokohama City and Nagoya City also established similar organizations).
As for measures and projects, there were cases in which attempts were made to promote scientific surveys and researches focusing on the monitoring of acid rain, CFCs and greenhouse gases, environmental cooperation with developing countries, sponsoring of international con-ferences and propagation and enhancement for residents.
The activities in which some local governments took the lead included the adoption of electric and other automobiles as official vehicles and the establishment of a loan system for the propagation of less pollution automobiles. Then there were local governments which were using recycled paper for business purposes.
As a matter of course, many local governments coped with recycling and reducing trash, and some of them concentrated its efforts on the propagation of merchandise with a mark of "friendly to the environment." Then there were local governments which cited the promotion of afforestation, the utilization of waste heat from waste incineration plants, water-saving, regional air-conditioning and the adoption of a solar system with a view to working for the building of communities and towns with consideration to the conservation of the environment.
On the other hand, it has been pointed out by local governments making efforts to cope with the global environment issues, that "the concrete direction has yet to be made clear by the State," that "it is difficult to get cooperation of related bureaus and to promote compre-hensive measures as relations between issues on the global environment and the administration of local governments are not clear" and that "there is a lack of systematic information." Therefore, the State should show the direction in which the nation ought to go, by implementing measures which we have examined in the preceding paragraph and play its leading role. In addition, the State should also carry out closer exchanges of information and coordi-nation of policy measures between the central government's related administrative agencies and local government, local governments are expected to clarify relations between their respective regions and the global environment issues and then provide support to activities of propagation and enhancement for local people and the conservation of t he regional environment .
1. City Planning Friendly to the Environment
Since today a significant load on the environment is produced by enormous energy and other resources consumed and thrown away in cities where the majority of the people live and evolve a wide variety of activities, It might be said that the environment issues are closely tied in with urban problems. In last year's White Paper on the Environment, entitled "Aiming City with People Coexistent with the Environment," a city is analyzed as a system and it advocated cities of "ecopolis" where the circulation of energy, water and other materials are well-balanced and they are utilizd in a recycling and efficient way as possible.
In the future, It is important to work for the adoption and dissemination of medium-scale drinking water system systems for the storage and utilization of rainwater, regional air conditioning systems, systems for cogeneration which will lead to improvements in the energy efficiency, and systems for the recovery and recycling of waste. Besides, it is important to raise the efficiency of resources and energy use in cities as a whole by stepping up, with the collaboration of users, commu-nity residents and other people, the utilization of such natural energy as hydraulic power, thermal heat, solar heat and light and wind velocity and that of remaining heat from wastes incineration plants and sewer treatment plants.
It is also important to take beck affluent nature to cities by such measures as the conservation of nature remaining in the cities urban afforestation, the conservation of rivers and spring water whose condi tions are close to their natural state and the creation of habitats for small animals. We should also regenerate ecosystems in the cities by making effective use of inherent various functions of urbanization, such as the purification of nature, the alleviation of climate conditions and the prevention of disasters. The evolution of recycling and other activ-ities for conservation of the environment is yet another important factor for city planning, and local governments are expected to provide posi-tive support to those activities.
In regard to urban transport systems, it is desirable to shift from personal cars to public transport systems such as railway and bus, while working for coordination with the policy measures implemented by the State, and to promote the rationalization of physical distribution, reduc-tion on the trips of automobiles and the dispersion and smoothing of traffic flows with the move of such facilities as factories, warehouses and wholesale markets where demand for physical distribution origi-nates, and the encouragement of measures to develop joint distributing systems, bypasses, loops and traffic control system. Particularly in major urban areas where the environmental quality standards for nitrogen dioxide are poorly achieved by the conspicuous snarls of automobile traffic, it is expected to study comprehensive car-parking measures and more powerful measures for reduction of the use of personal car, along with studies on the feasibility of measures to curb the total exhaust of automobile gas.
As water pollution by domestic waste water is at issue in conjunc-tion with the concentration of population in cities and changes in the way of life, local governments--municipalities which are closely tied in with local people, in particular-are expected to play the leading role in promoting the development of sewer systems and other domestic waste water treatment plants and the propagation and enhancement among residents of measures which can easily be done in our daily life.
2. Adopting Activities with Small Loads on the Environment and Their Introduction to the Local Community
Local governments also produce not an insignificant load on the environment in their activities such as their own administration and projects. It is hoped that they will take the lead in striving to reduce as many loads on the environment as possible by identifying the loads. At present, the State is striving to do activities which has few loads on the environment in accordance with the agreement of the Ministerial Council on the Global Environment Conservation and that of the Council for Promotion of Energy-and Resource-saving Measures. For example, local governments may be expected to reduce the massive consumption of office paper in their offices, promote the recovery and recycling of waste paper while it is classified by type, the utilization of recycled paper, the adoption as public cars of low pollution cars such as electric cars and methanol cars, the use of natural energy such as solar and wind energy, and the utilization and propagation of merchandise "friendly to the environment."
It is also hoped that local governments will not only take the lead in taking those measures by themselves but introduce these measures to private businesses and ordinary citizens so that they may also be able to take similar actions.
3. Participation and Cooperation in Surveys, Researches, Observation and Monitoring of Global Environment
As we have seen earlier, it is local governments which, confronted with the local environment problems, first took the lead in coping with them. Particularly in the Japanese environmental administration system, prefectural governments, administrative ordinance-designated cities and other local governments are empowered to directly execute environmental laws and monitor the environment.
In the history of the development of such environmental adminis-tration, many local governments have accumulated valuable experi-ences in the prevention of local pollution and administration for the conservation of nature, established elaborate networks of monitoring and measurement, local pollution research institutes, pollution monitor-ing centers and other facilities which have produced a number of technologies and research achievements. They also have brought up skilled researchers and technical experts. Their accumulation of experi-ences in administration and technology is significant.
It is hoped that local governments, making effective use of their accumulation, will positively contribute to sustainable development, such as by coping with domestic environmental issues, which have diversified and conspicuously changed in recent years, by participating in international and multidis-ciplinary research projects and monitoring activities on global-environment issues as well as by dispatching special-ists and receiving trainees from developing countries. In developing countries' environmental administration, which has much to be developed in the future, and the development of technology for it, the role local governments can play is strikingly great. We will dwell on this issue in Section V.
4. Offer of Information to Residents, Enhancement of Consciousness and Support to NGOs
Touching on the State's role in the preceding section, we have already dwelled on the importance of offering information to the people in general, enhancing their consciousness and environmental education, to say a few, so this is not the place to give yet another elaborate description. It is local governments which routinely come in direct contact with residents and can evolve more elaborate public-information activities and enhance their consciousness. It is also local governments to which we owe much in being able to give environmental education at school education and various community activities. Many local governments have coped in earnest with the provision of informa-tion about the environment and the dissemination of environmental education, but in the future, it might be effective to utilize the funds raised for conservation of the local environment by the prefectures and administrative ordinance-designated cities.
They might use the aforementioned report "Some Proposals to Life-style Friendly to the Environment" and prepare and widely use its supplementary readers, which explain the ideas in plain language, and its instruction books and manuals for local activists who will play the leading role in the local environment conservation, Some local NGOs are appealing for the conservation of precious nature remaining in the district and taking an active role in the recycling of wastes. It is also important to support them by the offering of information, subsidizing surveys and researches and managing joint projects.
III. Private Responsibilities and Their Contributions
Fundamental causes of most enterprises' global environmental issues are a rapid expansion of developed countries' economic perfor-mance, on the one hand, and rapid population increases, poverty and urban concentration in developing countries, on the other. If things are left as they are, the sound state of the global environment will be damaged, making it difficult to develop the world economy as hoped for at the Arche Summit Issues on the global environment are so grave as to spoil the basis of mankind's survival, so that it is inevitable to produce a significant impact on the corporate performance. It might be said that businesses have to change their performance into those in pursuit of long-term benefits for society as a whole as well as short term benefit.
Many private companies in Japan have production bases and strategic points for the business performance not only in developed countries but also in developing countries. In addition they have briskly evolved their corporate performance by means of the development and import of resources. Not just for businesses which have already devel-oped into multinational conglomerates but for private Japanese busines-ses which have to globalize their activities, it is indispensable to incorpo-rate local environmental state and the global environment issues in their business strategy. It is also important to take a positive stance that chance for new businesses and technologies comes from this approach.
More than anything else, there is the need to making every effort to prevent local environmental pollution which arises right out of their corporate performance and to strive for the development and propaga-tion of technologies and products for conservation of the environment. Particularly in fulfilling their social responsibility for, and making positive contributions to, the global environment conservation, it is necessary for businesses and their entrepreneurs to adopt the following concept and strategy and translate them into action in concrete form.
1. To Understand Relations Between Their Own Corporate Performance and Global Environment Issues
It is necessary for businesses to become fully aware that the global environment problems are now grave for mankind and to accu-rately grasp what sort of impact their own corporate performance will produce, both directly and indirectly, on the global environment and what sort of influence they must bear from the changing global environ-ment. Already, many corporations and economic organizations have established in-house committees and research groups on the global environment and offices to deal with specific issues, such as the stren-gthening of controls on the production and consumption of CFCs, measures to curb global warming and the imports of tropical lumber. But it is important for them not only to merely "respond" various regulations but to take the lead in fulfilling their social responsibility by positively gathering information in a broader perspective and by dissem-ination and enhancement through in-house public-information activities and employees' training or at the places of seminars and events done by industrial organizations.
2. For Corporations to Reduce Loads of Their Own Performance, Products and Technology on Global Environment
It is important to step up energy saving, including strict heat management, such as the adoption of microelectronic control technol-ogy; the efficient utilization of waste heat; the adoption of cogeneration system which will raise the energy efficiency after solving the problems raised in Chapter 1 ; participation in the regional air-conditioning system; vacations en bloc by each business establishment ; the two-holidays-a-week system and the adoption of the daylight saving time system. It is also important to promote the utilization of natural energy such as solar energy and wind power as well as a shift to fuels from which smaller amounts of sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide are generated.
It is important to strive for an early abandonment of the utiliza-tion of specific CFCs, the proper management and disposal of hazardous chemicals, and the development and adoption of the closed system and other production processes from which almost no waste material may come out, and to implement a wide variety of pollution control mea-sures. It is also important to encourage resource-saving, such as the saving of office paper, the recovery and recycling of used paper and the utilization of recycled paper and the effective use of rainwater and waste water.
Needless to say, those measures ought to be used in every phase of the development, distribution and sales of products, and there is the need to strive for the development and propagation of equipment with a higher energy efficiency and systems for which natural energy is used, the improvement of fuel efficiency of automobiles and the development of electric cars and other less pollution cars. It is also necessary to decrease producing and marketing disposal merchandise and exorbi-tantly packing wares, develop products whose recovery and recycling are feasible in the process of wastes, and adopt such containers and set their specifications in accordance with recycling.
The manufacturers and dealers of products are called on to explore from every point the possibility of establishing a sales system in which the recovery of the products is incorporated from the beginning. They may be encouraged to supply products and services which have less loads on the environment, or which is "friendly to the earth," being of significant help to the conservation of the environment.
3. To Develop Environmental Technology
The corporate performance has produced science and technology, many kinds of products and services which are the basis of our contem-porary society. In coping with various issues that arise out of the massive production, massive consumption and impertinent utilization of those products and services, the role of the businesses is indeed great. When it comes to corporations, it is supposed that as the consciousness about, and the necessity of, environment conservation are on the rise today, cooperation can find expanding market not only at home but also in export and in development aid supported by Japan's advanced tech-nology.
The sectors which may become subjects of research and develop-ment by businesses are broad, including more advanced (or revolution-ary) technology for pollution prevention, technology for the saving of resources and energy, measurement and monitoring technology, adapta-tion to the changing environment, or the technological and social sys-tems in which all those factors are integrated. Specifically in relation to typical global environment problems, technology for substitutes for CFCs and for the destruction of CFCs, technology for a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, recovery and fixation of carbon dioxide, development of forests, transformation of deserts into green tracts of land, soil improvements, improvement of breed and plants using biotech-nology, development of technology for the waste treatment, simplified and less costly desulfurization and NOX reduction systems for develop-ing countries, waste water treatment plants, and development of tech-nology for the prevention of pollution and other technologies for the prevention of pollution may be cited.
With the development of such new technologies and products, it is desirable to build "industries friendly to the environment" or "eco-businesses" without wasting much time.
4. To Give Consideration to Counterpart Countries' and Global Environment in Abroad Investment and Trade
There is the need to carry out adequate environmental impact assessments with due consideration given to the present state of fea-tures of the local environment, the phase of social and economic devel-opment and the acceptability of manpower and technology and adapt to controls on the local environment. It is also needed to strive for pollu-tion prevention with technology as optimum as possible (at least with the application of as strict standards as those in Japan for the control of hazardous materials).
In trade, full heed should be paid to the exports of dangerous items and materials hazardous to the environment and, in particular, there is the need to establish a policy of not exporting items whose use is prohibited in Japan. It is also important to establish a capability of exercising pertinent control on the part of trade counterparts, such as with the offer of appropriate information about products which are to be exported and its danger to the environment. In the commercial cutting and imports of tropical lumber, there is the need to pay consider-ation to the control of sustainable local forests and strive for reforesta-tion at places where trees have been felled and at alternative places.
As regards activities, trade and investments abroad by private businesses, many international regulations and related organizations' voluntary rules are formulated. At present, guidelines are developed by the United Nations, the OECD and other institutions for environmental considerations in investments abroad by multinational corporations, and there have signs in recent years that those international regulations are strengthened.
For investments abroad by private businesses in Japan, industry voluntarily formulated an Action Guideline for Investments Abroad in 1987, and in June last year, the Minister of International Trade and Industry advised related organizations of the Corporate Performance Expected in the Evolution of Overseas Projects. In it, above all, empha-sis was put on the necessity of paying full consideration to the environ-ment of invested countries.
It is expected that those measures will be developed to a further extent. It is also necessary that as regards the way the corporate performance ought to be in relation to the environment both at home and abroad, a Code of Environmental Action which would contain substantial and detailed provisions or a Basic Policy on the Environ-ment or a Corporate Code for each line of business or corporation will be adopted.
5. To Evolve Activities Positively Contributing to Conservation of the Environment
It is important to carry out the measures to which reference has just been made, first, and for corporations to positively involve them-selves in the regional and global environment conservation. For exam-ple, it is desirable that they will strive to take the lead in afforestation on the compounds of their industrial plants and around their business offices and will involve themselves in the national green movement and in foreign afforestation projects.
Already at home, those actions are taken by many private businesses and some corporations have recently involved themselves in afforestation projects in foreign countries, but what is worthy of note in this respect is an afforestation project which is performed in Guatemala by some American electric power company. This State of Virginia-based corporation has offered $2 million in funds for an afforestation program under which 52 million trees will be transplanted to offset and fix carbon dioxide which is to be emitted from a projected thermal power plant over its life period of 40 years.
In the sense of support to activities evolved by other organiza-tions for conservation of the environment, there are many active NGOs and nonprofit foundation in Japan, and it is expected that support will be extended to them by those private businesses, and that as nonprofit trust funds and funds for conservation of the environment are estab-lished to preserve the environment, the funds will be used in evolving those broad-range activities. From a standpoint of contributing to environment conservation in a broader and longer-term perspective, as we have stated in 3, it is necessary to replenish basic-science research and subsidize university and other research institutions which carry out basic research but not just technology which will directly benefit private businesses.
We will dwell on private businesses' technical cooperation and pecuniary assistance to developing countries, it is important to encour-age the transfer of technologies in which Japan excels, such as measures against pollution, both to developed and developing countries by taking advantage of the chances of direct investment. With consideration paid to the sovereignty of developing countries, it is expected to participate and cooperate in the so-called debt-for-nature swap, in which measures for the conservation of nature in counterpart developing countries will be strengthened in return for the takeover of their debts.
IV. Grass-roots Movement--Global Citizens' Role
According to a survey on the consciousness of people and the leaders in 14 countries in the world, including Japan, West Germany, Kenya and Mexico, by the UNEP in 1988 (with the findings released in May 1989) indicates that the interest in the environment issues was extremely high in each country in general, but most Japanese did not think that the environment of Japan was steadily deteriorating because of a lack of efforts to conserve the environment, their support and participation in environment conservation activities.
In other countries, 60-100% of respondents expressed their readi-ness to work or financially contribute for environment improvements, whereas the ratio stood at 44% for the public and 77% for the leaders in Japan. Asked if they would support the leaders of various organiza-tions which were engaged in the environment improvement, the public' s opinions were divided and the majority said that they would neither support nor oppose them, and only 26% said that they would support them (Table 2-4-1). However, the findings of the survey suggests that Japan is one of the countries which are greatly concerned about global warming.
Table 2-4-1 Offer of Labor or Funds for Environmental Improvements
Question:Do you want to strive to improve the environment by sponging two hours a week in activities on environmental problems or make donations in cooperation with other people in your region?
Source: UNEP Survey released in May 1989.
Depending on the present such factors as state of environment and the measures taken in each country in the past, its political and economic situation and its historical, social and cultural backdrop how the questions were received by respondents per se differs, so that prudence is required for an international comparison of replies to the survey, but the findings axe generally compatible with those of various opinion polls that have been performed in Japan.
According to the findings of an opinion poll conducted by the Prime Minister's Office in October 1988, for example, more than half of respondents bought CFCs containing sprays and exorbitantly packed merchandise which they know were bad for the environment, and only one out of every four persons had participated in voluntary activities for local environment conservation, such as the purification of rivers and the green movement. According to the findings of another Opinion poll conducted also by the Prime Minister's Office in January 1988, about 70% of respondents replied that they were "highly worried" or "wor-ried" about 6 issues on the global environment--the ongoing depletion of tropical forests and desertification, the decrease in wildlife species, global warming, depletion of the ozone layer, pollution in developing countries and acid rain, whereas those who had participated or cooper-ated in activities for environment conservation in the preceding 5 years accounted for only less than 20%. It might be said that there is a significant gap between consciousness and behavior.
As one reason, it might be said in relative terms that the Japanese have yet to acquaint themselves with thinking in a global perspective and taking action in concert with the people of other regions and countries. There already are many citizens' groups and NGOs organized in specific areas and on specific issues, but in reality, only a few private organizations are equipped with resources to evolve international activ-ities to conserve the environment and render assistance to developing countries.
1. To Deepen Recognition of Issues on the Environment
More than anything else, it is necessary for as many people as possible to deeply recognize how closely our own lives are tied in with the global environment. In recent years, not only the State and local governments but television, newspapers and other mass media corpora-tions, private businesses and NGOs have held many events, such as lecture meetings, seminars and exhibitions on the environment, exchanges of recycled merchandise, gatherings to observe nature and camping for environmental education. In addition, many books and magazines on environment issues have been published particularly in the last year or so.
It is to be hoped that all workshops and communities will sponta-neously give consideration not only to the environment of their respec-tive regions but the global environment through positively incorporating in their lives the knowledge and experience they have gained from participation in those events and reading newspapers and magazines and disseminating their knowledge and experience to their friends and family members--and children in particular.
On the other hand, as it is a fact that despite a full understanding about the necessity of consideration to the environment, some people simply do not know what they should do in concrete form, the Environ-ment Agency held a Meeting for Studies on Life and the Environment in response to a recommendation made by the Consultative Body on Environmental Education in 1988 and has studied the ideal way of consideration to the environment in the daily life while seeking views from a broad segment of the people. The agency continues to study relations between the global environment and the daily life. It is expect-ed that local governments, consumer groups and other organizations will also take the lead in making and propagating such an attempt.
2. To Reduce Loads on the Environment in the Daily Life
It is essential that efforts should be made to save electric power and water by customarily switching them off, and to save resources and energy in the households, such as by checking the durability, energy efficiency and water saving capacity of household electric appliances which are to be purchased. In daily shopping, considerations are required, such as not to buy disposal merchandise but to buy merchan-dise "friendly to the earth" with as few loads on the environment as possible (or contributory to the conservation of the environment), and not to buy wildlife which is likely to cease to exist and its processed products. It is important not to wash away waste oil and raw garbage in the kitchen into sewer systems and other outlets and to implement measures, such as the installation of purification tanks of a compound processing type in areas where sewer systems have yet to be developed. Naturally, it is also important to strive to reduce wastes, such as by sending used goods to recycling plants and positively cooperate or participate in the recovery of empty cans, empty bottles and waste paper.
Moreover, when a house is to be newly built or another house is to be constructed to replace the old one, it is required to ascertain the use of heat-resisting materials and to consider use of solar heat, light and other natural energy. For commutation in major cities where there arise severe traffic congestion and for outings in the sightseeing season, there is the need to refrain from using owner cars which can carry only a limited number of people and to use public means of transport as much as possible.