Japan gets verv touah about Dollution Its i automomes IO comply wirn srringenr arnmerir air, ~IIIISSIUII. i t discharge rules
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As of May 1973, on a km2 basis, Ja,an's Gross National Product (GNP) was it least seven times that of the US. -he value added in the manufacturing iector exceeded that of the U.S. by ibout six times, and energy consumpion by five times. Yet its land area is mly about Ygs that of the U.S., and of hat land area, 16-18% is flat enough or significant concentrations of agriculure, industry, and population. Add to hese statistics Japan's well-nigh explojive industrialization and economic growth after World War ii, as well as ack of planning effort to develop polluion prevention technology and low so-
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Environmental Science &Technology
cial overhead capital investment, and watch environmental troubles build up. These environmental troubles have exacted costs in human health. The costs are exemplified by illnesses such as Minamata mercury poisoning disease in Kumamoto and Niigata Prefectures; itai-itai cadmium poisoning disease in Toyama (€S&T. February 1974, p 112): and Yokkaichi asthma in Mie Prefecture. However, although there are still problems galore, Japan, through vigorous citizen, government, and industry action, is now playing a hard, but hopefully winning game of environmental "catch-up ball".
Japan1zse water quality standsirds" Pollutant
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Alkyl mercury mf Arsenic Cadmium Cadmiui Cyanide Hexavalentchromium Hexaval, Lead Organic phosphorusr Total m mercury r
Standard Y.I"*d
Not detectable 0.05 ppm 0.01 ppm Not detectable 0.05 ppm 0.1 ppm Not detectable Not detectable
a r t i a lI,-+, b M i x i m i m values: e Includes * ~Partiz EPN, me1li&i-&;iemeiih, methyl p%athion. and parathior S O W C e :.Japanese Federation Of Economic Organizations (Keidanren, Tokyo).
"No more Yokkaichisl" Last century, Japan started to modernize its porcelain, textile, and spinning industries. Next, it brought in coal-fired iron, steel, and ship-building industries, as well as alkali plants. In pre-World War ll Japan, the heavy black coal smoke seen was considered a symbol of prosperity. Pollution damage to property or people, some of which was noted even in those days, was not considered a potential social problem. After the war, industrializatior to accelerate, and heavy industri verted from coal to then-cheap um as an energy source. In 195 started on the first major Japanf rochemical complex at Yokkaic complex started up in 1960, at WhiCh time the national government initiated a program to achieve an annual GNP growth rate of 7.2%. This program called for even more accelerated industrial development, and heavy pollution burdens resulting from this development were not long in coming. Neither was organized citizen reacI?._ I_ In,.. LIUII. r r i I Y D I, ror example, cirizens protested the construction of another petrochemical complex at Nishinomiya (Hyogo Prefecture, near Osaka). This I
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protest led to the first use of modern science and technology for a presiting survey in Japan. When further petrochemical development was scheduled for Shizuoka Prefecture in 1964, citizen pressure there, under the slogan, "No more Yokkaichis?', finally caused abandonment of the project, much to the shock of the national and local governments. The slogan referred to excessive air pollution stemming from the Yokkaichi petrochemical complex. and
Ine IlrSt real lammark in the Jaoanese government's attack
