Japan and environmental protection

Historical and Political Context

A strong Asian island nation fiercely protective of its national identity and independence, Japan always sought to be at least on equal footing with the known leading nations of the ages. Thus, when industrialization with its attendant side effect of massive emission of into the atmosphere gave Western nations a decisive military and economic edge by the middle of the nineteenth century, Japan chose to rapidly catch up and industrialize during the Meiji Restoration announced in 1868.

On the other hand, when concern for global warming led the leading nations of the world to seek for means to reduce the negative impact of their industry and consumers and traffic on the Earth’s atmosphere by the end of the twentieth century, Japan took a leading role in researching and committing to less environmentally damaging alternatives. It certainly spoke to the Japanese self-understanding as a leading innovative nation that the decisive protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was adopted in Kyoto, an ancient capital of Japan, on December 11, 1997. Known since as the Kyoto Protocol, the agreement represents a strong international commitment to combat global warming.

In a pattern still typical by the early twenty-first century, once Japan decided to industrialize, the government worked very closely with private enterprise and could draw on a well-educated, hard-working and frugal workforce. This public-private partnership contributed to Japan’s fast industrial rise, albeit at the price of environmental damage.

Japan’s first encounter with industrial pollution occurred in 1878. Runoff water contaminated with inorganic copper compounds from the privately owned Ashio Mine north of Tokyo caused copper poisoning among farmers and villagers living downstream. Tanaka Shozo, the local member of the lower house of Japan’s new parliament, publicly raised the issue. As a result the company paid compensation, and the government erected runoff prevention, yet some problems remained. Well into the middle of the twentieth century, most Japanese pollution cases followed this pattern of privately caused pollution, public reaction, and increasingly vigorous financial, governmental, and legal redress.

An extremely negative side effect of Japan’s drive to industrialization despite a surprising lack of natural resources such as coal, oil, iron, and nonferrous metals was its embarkation on imperialism and colonialism. Copying the West, Japan created a colonial empire that at its peak in 1932 encompassed Korea, Taiwan, and the puppet state of Manchukuo, carved out of Northeast China. Conflict with the United States over Japan’s war in China after 1937 led to an American of Japan in 1941 that persuaded Japanese militarists to attack the United States at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, drawing the Americans into World War II. After surrendering unconditionally on August 15, 1945, Japan lost its colonies. To become an economic leader again was a major challenge.

Impact of Japanese Policies on Climate Change

Japan’s post-World War II political decision to promote Japanese economic recovery included a broad national consensus to rebuild and expand Japan’s industry. This national aim was aided by the United States, who wanted a strong Japan as a free world counterpart to communist aggression in Europe and Asia during the Cold War. With virtually no natural fuel resources such as oil and coal, Japan had to import these from abroad, as well as almost all raw materials for industrial production of steel and industrial manufacturing. In this situation, Japanese policy promoted manufacturing of consumer goods, chemicals, and machines primarily for export to pay for its import of fuel and raw materials.

The strong pro-industry policies of Japan led to an initial postwar neglect of environmental protection and the outbreak of three major pollution incidents in 1956, 1961, and 1965. There was strong public reaction to these incidents. Two involved mercury poisoning, and the 1961 case resulted in poisonous smog created by unregulated burning of petroleum and crude oil waste by the Showa Yokkaichi Oil Corporation. As a result of public pressure and successful lawsuits based on irrevocable scientific evidence for the cause of the pollution incidents, Japan’s public policy shifted toward more effective environmental protection.

In 1970, Japan passed six environmental laws and put much more teeth into eight existing ones. In 1971, the Environmental Agency was established and given a broad mandate to protect Japan’s environment from air, soil, water, and other pollution. Exhaust by cars was also addressed aggressively and industrial polluters were held accountable by passage of the 1973 Pollution Health Damage Compensation Law. Ironically, the drastic oil price increases of the first oil crisis of 1973 forced Japanese companies, utilities, and consumers to find immediate means of conserving fuel to survive economically in the face of Japan’s near total dependency on fuel imports. Its industry became more fuel efficient with lower emissions.

The first white paper of Japan’s Environmental Agency in 1984 strengthened environmental awareness among Japanese corporations and citizens, as did further policy papers, campaigns, and surveys. The 1993 Basic Environment Law of Japan explicitly restricted industrial emissions considered harmful for the climate, as well as calling for improved energy conservation, recycling, and pollution control programs.

Indicative of Japan’s serious commitment to environmental protection including addressing and combating climate change, in 2001, the Environmental Agency was upgraded to the Ministry of the Environment.

Japan as a GHG Emitter

According to Japan’s emission statistics reported to the United Nations in 2008 for the years from 1990 to 2006, with 1.22 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases (GHGs) emitted in 2006, Japan was the world’s fifth largest emitter of CO₂ and its equivalents. By comparison, the top two emitters were the United States with 6.37 billion metric tons in 2006, a figure closely matched or perhaps even surpassed by 8 percent by the People’s Republic of China, according to a 2007 estimate by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency. When Japan’s emissions were compared to the size and output of its national economy, the Japanese economy proved remarkable emissions-effective. This was particularly in contrast to the number three and four GHG emitters, India and Russia. In 2008, Japan created with $4.84 trillion the world’s second largest gross domestic product, just behind the United States, and remained in place five of the GHG-emitting countries.

Under the complex United Nations measuring system for GHGs, nations can earn some credit or debit to their overall emissions when they offset emissions through land use, land-use change, or forestry (abbreviated as LULUCF). This was an incentive for nations to promote and protect forests, as was done in Japan vigorously since the 1980s. As a result, Japan’s overall 2006 emission was lowered by 82.6 million metric tons of GHGs. In addition, only anthropogenic emissions are considered, excluding, for example, CO₂ from volcanic eruptions.

In Japan, as elsewhere, CO₂ was the major GHG emitted, accounting for 1.156 billion metric tons in 2006 (without LULUCF credits). Under United Nations standards, other GHG emissions are added to those of CO₂ with a weighted formula. For example, each ton of methane is multiplied by 21, each ton of nitrous oxide by 310, and fluorocarbons each have specific values. In 2006, Japan emitted a CO₂ equivalent of 21.8 million metric tons of methane, a 23.6-million-metric-ton equivalent of nitrous oxide and just 15.4 million metric tons of CO₂ equivalents of the ozone-layer-damaging fluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride (all excluding LULUCF credits).

As an industrialized, Annex I country that signed and ratified the Kyoto Protocol, which became effective on February 16, 2005, Japan has committed to reduce its emissions to 6 percent below their 1990 level no later than 2012. This commitment is slightly higher than the 5.2 percent average for industrialized nations. However, Japan’s 2006 data show an increase of 5.3 percent from the 1.154 billion metric tons of GHGs emitted in 1990. When the figures are used that account for possible LULUCF credits, Japan even increased its emissions by 5.8 percent as reforestation and other measures had reached their intended limits in the 1990s and had leveled off.

Japanese politicians and experts have pointed out that Japan had relatively low emission levels in 1990 already. Ever since the 1973 oil crisis, Japan had invested great resources in cleaner factories and power plants. Japan reduced emissions considerably earlier than other countries. Despite this relative disadvantage, Japan ratified the Kyoto Protocol in 2002 and remained committed to its targets. By 2022, Japan's GHG emissions were roughly 1.14 billion tons. This continued a sharp downward trend in the nation's GHG emissions. The Japanese government has pleged to continue this progress, intending to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Summary and Foresight

As a leading industrial nation creating the world’s second largest gross domestic product, behind the United States, and running the third largest economy, behind the United States and the People’s Republic of China, if measured by purchasing power parity, in 2008, Japan would continue to emit a huge share of the world’s GHGs. Japan has been particularly motivated to earn the money it needs to import its food and fuel, both of which it is lacking, through export of high-value goods that require considerable energy consumption and thus GHG emission in their manufacture. At the same time, Japanese politicians and the populace were seriously committed to combating global warming and willing to spend considerable resources to achieve this aim.

Far from the days of permitting rampant industrial pollution just after World War II, when economic recovery was on the top of the agenda, Japan has become a leader in environmental protection. By 2002, the second environmental performance review of Japan by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) praised Japan for its highly effective implementation of positive environmental policies and its strict, well-enforced, and seriously monitored regulations. In 2006, Japan’s Ministry of the Environment made prevention of global warming, protection, and of the air, water, and soil environments issues of top concern.

Japan has become strongly committed to an international approach to Earth-spanning challenges such as global warming. Japan is a founding member of the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate founded on January 12, 2006, in Sydney, Australia. In addition, Japan continues to stress environmental protection in the countries of its trade partners.

Key Facts

• Population: 125.1 million (July 2022 estimate)
• Area: 377,873 square kilometers
• Gross domestic product (GDP): $4.256 trillion (purchasing power parity, 2022 estimate)
• Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in millions of metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e): 1,154 in 1990; 1,223 in 2000; 1,216 in 2006; 1,400 in 2022
• Kyoto Protocol status: Ratified 2002

Bibliography

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