Japan Initiative for Marine Environment（JaIME）

September, 2018
JaIME Secretariat

Message from the Chairman
Chemical products including plastics are making enormous contributions to the welfare andthe resource savings globally and thus they are indispensable for social life of humankind. On
the other hand, due to the outstanding characteristics of plastics such as durability, plastics
would remain in the environment for a long period of time and might exert unexpected harmful
influences on human health and the environment if they are inappropriately disposed after use.
Therefore, it is very important to manage plastics wastes properly.
Unfortunately, in reality, various wastes including used plastics flow into rivers from various
regions including Asian emerging countries and accumulate in the oceans. This reality is widely
covered politically and socially, and also, the problem is pointed out by academic experts.
We, the chemical industry, is strongly committed to take voluntary actions under the principle
and the initiative of ‘Responsible Care’ to protect the environment, and to ensure the healthand the safety throughout the life cycle of chemical products from development tomanufacturing, consumption, disposal and recycling.
In the spirit of ‘Responsible Care,’ we will act to address the marine plastic issue as we
acknowledge that it is a big challenge to our industry. As a first step we recently establishedthe ‘Japan Initiative for Marine Environment (JaIME)’ supported by five chemical industry
associations as joint secretariat, namely the Japan Chemical Industry Association, the Japan
Plastics Industry Federation, the Plastic Waste Management Institute, the Japan
Petrochemical Industry Association and the Vinyl Environmental Council.
The most important and fundamental measure we have to take to cope with the marineplastic problem is to prevent plastic wastes from flowing into rivers. In order to do so, we haveto take the big challenge to help development of social infrastructure for plastic waste
management.
In Japan, in pursuant to the policy of 3R (reduce, reuse, recycle), related infrastructure suchas separation and collection systems of plastics wastes has been developed over time since it
started struggles with environmental pollutions in the 60s. The efforts need to be continued toincrease the effective utilization rate of plastic wastes. We believe that Japan has a role to playin the improvement of plastic waste management in the countries and regions which need help
to reduce emissions of significant amount of plastic wastes. In cooperation with the Japanese
government and other industry associations who share the same goal, we will actively makecontributions, to help our international partners towards development of social infrastructure
system including education, respecting the circumstances and social systems of each country orregion.

September, 2018
Tsutomu Tannowa
Chairman of JaIMEAction Plan of JaIME
1. Collect and analyze information and promote information sharing
In recent years, various reports and papers on marine plastics are published byacademic experts, NGOs and others, and the number of them is rapidly increasing.
JaIME collects, analyzes and shares the information timely and properly,
considering their influences on policies, etc. so that JaIME can take most effectiveactions.
2. Take actions
JaIME will take appropriate and timely actions, closely following thedevelopment of the discussions in the “Subcommittee on Resource Circulation
Strategy for Plastics” established by Ministry of the Environment to will follow
the proposed amendment of ‘Act on Promoting the Treatment of Marine Debris’sponsored by a cross-party group of lawmakers and approved in June, 2018 andthe subsequent “Fundamental Plan for Establishing a Sound Material-CycleSociety” which was approved by the Cabinet.
3. Engage in outreach to Asia
To represent the Japanese chemical industry, JaIME helps Asian emerging
countries to discuss measures to support improvement of plastic waste
management in them. In order to do so, it plans and organizes symposiums andseminars in Asia to share the experiences and knowledges that Japan has had.
It will put a focus on relevant training activities in the Asian region.
4. Promote capacity building for scientific knowledge and evidences
JaIME explores experts related to the marine plastic issue to collect most upto-date and solid scientific knowledge. It supports research work to assess theeffectiveness of energy recovery scientifically to share with global partners inconsideration of the current condition that energy recovery has not received fullunderstanding in western countries.

JaIME Member List
June, 2019
【Members】
Asahi Kasei Corp.
AGC Inc.
Ube Industries, Ltd.
Kao Corporation
KANEKA CORPORATIONJSR Corporation
Showa Denko K.K.
Sumitomo Chemical Company, Limited
SEKISUI CHEMICAL CO.,LTD.
Daicel Corporation
DIC Corporation
Denka Company LimitedToagosei Co.,LTD.
Tosoh Corporation
Tokuyama Corporation
NOF CORPORATION
Nippon Kayaku Co., Ltd.
NIPPON SHOKUBAI CO., LTD.
FUJIFILM Holdings Corporation
Mitsui Chemicals, Inc.
MITSUBISHI GAS CHEMICAL COMPANY, INC.
Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation

JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy Corporation
Zeon Corporation
Maruzen Petrochemical Co., Ltd.
Idemitsu Kosan Co.,Ltd.
Mitsubishi Corporation
Japan Plastic Food Container Association
NIPPON STEEL Chemical & Material Co., Ltd.
JNC CORPORATION
Japan Chemical Fiber Association
Dow-Mitsui Polychemicals Company, Ltd．
SunAllomer Ltd.
Prime Polymer Co., Ltd.
Japan Styrene Industry Association
Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.
Taiyo Oil Company, Limited
Lion Corporation
TEIJIN LIMITED
Dow Chemical Japan Limited
Toray Industries, Inc.
Japan Polystyrene Foamed Sheet Industry Association
Japan Soap and Detergent Association
SEKISUI PLASTICS CO.,Ltd.
KURARAY CO., LTD.
KH Neochem Co., Ltd.
Sumitomo Bakelite Co., Ltd.

【Supporting members】
Japan Soft Drink Association
Japan Department Stores Association
Japan Franchise Association【Secretariat】
Japan Chemical Industry Association
Japan Plastics Industry Federation
Plastic Waste Management InstituteJapan Petrochemical Industry Association
Vinyl Environmental Council（phone:+81-3-3297-2567）（phone:+81-3-6661-6811）（phone:+81-3-6855-9175）（phone:+81-3-3297-2014）（phone:+81-3-3297-5601）