domestic SMC Society. This accumulated knowledge will be provided in the form best suited to each country's needs, such as assistance in formulating national 3R promotion plans, cooperation to help develop sound material-cycle cities modeled after Japanese Eco-towns, and support to help increase access to safe and sanitary night soil disposal systems. To this end, each country's situation and needs will be assessed so that Japan's 3R technologies/systems and training programs can be tailored to each country's actual needs. Furthermore, Japan will foster international collaboration not only at the national level but also at a variety of other levels, including the public, enterprises and local governments.

Japan has already been helping other countries solve their problems by engaging in policy dialogue and addressing their needs through frameworks such as the Tripartite Environment Ministers Meetings between China, Japan and Korea. Now that countries in Asia, especially in East Asia, are enhancing their waste management policies by introducing the concept of the 3Rs, in accordance with their social and economic situations, Japan should explore a specific vision of international cooperation that meets these countries' needs. In this way, Japan can offer East Asian countries the benefits of its experience, gained through past reforms for the promotion of waste management and recycling, and let these countries make use of this information as a valuable resource (Table 4-4-1).

The FY 2007 White Paper on a Sound Material-Cycle Society mentioned Japan’s outstanding technologies, policies and systems. Japan can make a significant contribution by making the most of its superior technologies and systems to assist other countries in establishing waste management mechanisms and formulating 3R promotion plans and visions.

Japan also needs to help other countries develop human resources and form organizations to implement technologies and systems related to responsible waste management and the 3Rs, through the use of existing technology development and training programs carried out by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and other organizations. Japan should also pursue co-benefits to global warming prevention through CDM or similar projects, construct a network of researchers and experts through which to share the scientific knowledge and technical information needed to formulate and implement 3R policies, and promote initiatives implemented by local governments and NGOs/NPOs, which will play major roles in a SMC Society.

## (1) Support for the formulation of national 3R plans and strategies

In order for each country to effectively and efficiently implement 3R initiatives, it is essential that the government declare its intention to promote the 3Rs as a national policy and formulate a plan or strategy that takes account of the existing legal framework for waste management and the regional status of waste management and recycling. Japan has been assisting countries such as Vietnam and Indonesia in developing 3R plans and strategies in accordance with their individual situations, in cooperation with the United Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Regional Resource Centre for Asia and the Pacific, and the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES). In providing such assistance, the approach taken by the Japanese government is to develop each plan or strategy with as much open consultation as possible by liaising with the recipient's environment ministry and involving all parties concerned, including the local governments in charge of waste disposal, as well as related ministries and NGOs. For example, Japan is trying to extend the results of, and the experience gained through, the development of Vietnam's national 3R strategy to other countries in the Mekong basin by coordinating its assistance with the support of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). JICA is also active in supporting the formulation of 3R-related plans. For example, it is assisting Malaysia to develop a plan to reduce solid waste.

## (2) Policy dialogue

Japan has been engaging in policy dialogue with the government bureaus responsible for waste management and the 3Rs in various countries seeking to enhance their domestic systems for 3R promotion and implement relevant policies in a well-planned manner. In the case of South Korea, the Japan-Korea Policy Dialogue on Waste Management and Recycling was conducted between director-general level officials from Japan and the Korean Ministry of the Environment in June 2006 in Tokyo (the first time) and in May 2007 in Seoul (the second time). With South Korea's law on the recycling of electrical and electronic waste (e-waste) and end-of-life vehicles set to come into effect in 2008, both countries exchanged information and opinions on their respective policy developments, including the current state of recycling for these wastes and each country's associated experience.

In the case of China, the Japan-China Policy Dialogue on Waste Management and Recycling was conducted between director-general level officials from Japan and