Threatened Wildlife of Japan (Species Listed in the Red List and the Red Data Book)

(as of March 2005)

Taxonomical group	Species assessed (a)	Extinct	Extinct in the wild	Threatened species	Near threatened	Data deficient	Threatened local population	Number of threatened species (b)	b/a (approx.)
Critically endangered+ Endangered
Category IA : Category IB
Animals	Mammals	approx. 200	4	0	32	16	16	9	12	48	24%
12	20
Birds	approx. 700	13	1	42	47	16	15	2	89	13%
17	25
Reptiles	97	0	0	7	11	9	1	2	18	19%
2	5
Amphibians	64	0	0	5	9	5	0	4	14	22%
1	4
Brackish water and freshwater fish	approx. 300	3	0	58	18	12	5	14	76	25%
29	29
Insects	approx. 30,000	2	0	63	76	161	88	3	139	0.5%
Land/freshwater molluscs	approx. 1,000	25	0	86	165	206	69	5	251	25%
Spiders/crustaceans	approx. 4,200	0	1	10	23	31	36	0	33	0.8%
Subtotal for animals	47	2	303	365	456	223	42	668

Plants	Vascular plants	approx. 7,000	20	5	1,044	621	145	52	0	1,665	24%
564	480
Bryophytes	approx. 1,800	0	0	110	70	4	54	0	180	10%
Algae	approx. 5,500	5	1	35	6	24	0	0	41	0.7%
Lichen	approx. 1,000	3	0	22	23	17	17	0	45	5%
Fungi	approx. 16,500	27	1	53	10	0	0	0	63	0.4%
Subtotal for plants	55	7	1,264	730	190	123	0	1,994

Total	102	9	1,567	1,095	646	346	42	2,662

(1) Data on the assessed animal species (including subspecies) were derived from the Environment Agency, Checklist of Japanese Species of Wildlife 1993, 1995, and 1998.

(2) Data on the vascular plants (including subspecies) were gathered by the Japanese Society for Plants Systematics.

(3) Data on the species of bryophytes, algae, lichen, and fungi (including subspecies) were derived from Ministry of the Environment surveys.

(4) Data on the current state of threatened species (including subspecies) were derived from the Environment Agency, Revised Red Data Book—Threatened Wildlife of Japan: Amphibians, Reptiles, Plants I, and Plants II (2000), Mammals and Birds (2002); Ministry of the Environment, Revised Red Data Book—Threatened Wildlife of Japan: Brackish Water and Freshwater Fish (2003), Land and Freshwater Mollusks (2005); and the Environment Agency, Red List on Invertebrates (2000).

Extinct: Species that are extinct in Japan

Critically endangered + Endangered: Species in danger of extinction

Vulnerable: Species facing increasing danger of extinction

Near threatened: Species with weak foundation for survival

Source: Ministry of the Environment

List of Invasive Alien Species under the Invasive Alien Species Act

(as of June 1, 2005)

Class	Name of Species
Mammals	Taiwan macaque, crab-eating macaque, rhesus macaque, raccoon, crab-eating raccoon, Javan mongoose, Pallas's squirrel (including Taiwan squirrel), gray squirrel, coypu or nutria, brushtail possum, Reeves's muntjac
Birds	Laughing thrushes, masked laughingthrush, white-browed laughingthrush, red-billed mesia
Reptiles	Snapping turtle, green anole, brown anole, brown tree snake, Taiwan beauty snake, Taiwan pit vipers
Amphibians	Cane toad
Fish	Largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, bluegill, channel catfish
Insects	Red imported fire ant, fire ant, Argentine ant or tropical fire ant
Invertebrates	4 species of widow spiders, 3 species of the genus Loxosceles, any species of the genera Atrax and Hadronyche (family Hexathelidae), any species of the family Buthidae
Plants	Alligatorweed, floating marshpennywort or pennywort, Senegal tea plant

Source: Ministry of the Environment

To promote ecotourism, the Ecotourism Promotion Committee formulated a package of promotion measures in June, 2004. It includes the adoption of the Ecotourism Charter and implementation of model projects.

As a response to the urgent issue that needs to be addressed, specifically the state of mineral content displays by hot spring business operators, the enforcement regulation for the Hot Spring Law was revised in February 2005. It aims at improving the provision of information to hot spring users. Under the new regulation, items that may influence hot spring properties must be indicated, in addition to existing description items.