Japan advocates for the “common problem,” recognizing a common destiny, and emphasizing that all countries should unite to start a concerted effort to advance tangible actions toward environmental protection.

Chapter 1 offers an overview of representative environmental conditions. Chapter 2 describes global warming’s already evident harm and the urgency of formulating a response. After discussing global warming’s present-day harmful effects and the economic consequences of responding, we introduce Japanese and global efforts related to global warming response measures. There are various potential choices of how to formulate a response to global warming. Whichever choice is made, to solve the problem it is essential to build a society that can restrict GHG emissions without imposing cultural or lifestyle sacrifices, and while still enabling truly rich and abundant life. Our daily lives are inescapably and intimately tied to the progression of global warming. The adverse effects will continue for a long time, not only for us but for future generations. We must immediately move to formulate a plan to face this problem, following a new growth strategy that touts “an economic society for the sake of people,” aiming for an economic society with far less GHG emissions.

In Chapter 3, in light of COP10 that will be held in Japan in October 2010, we show Japan's responsibility as host country and the need to transition to socioeconomic arrangements concerned with biodiversity. Biodiversity confers various benefits on humanity, on a scale far larger than what we normally perceive them to be. Nonetheless, biodiversity is being lost rapidly on a global scale at an unprecedented level, and we are presently facing a future in which it will be difficult to enjoy the services provided by ecosystems in a sustainable manner. The magnitude of the benefits obtained from ecosystem protection is now understood to be larger than the cost of recovering formerly lost ecosystems, and it is of prime importance to advance development projects and natural resource use after thoroughly analyzing the cost effectiveness. Global biodiversity has far-reaching effects because Japan depends on overseas supply for most of its resources. Therefore, in order to protect and sustainably utilize the biodiversity that forms the foundation for human survival, we must take initiative to change all of our socioeconomic arrangements, from corporate actions to individual lifestyles, on the basis of our concern for biodiversity. Through its consideration of post-2010 global targets, COP10 is an important conference that will decide the future in the global biodiversity. As the host country Japan must take the lead in fostering the balanced coexistence of humans and nature around the world, such as through the worldwide spread of “the Satoyama Initiative” promoting sustainable use and management of natural resources.

Chapter 4 considers the protection of the worlds' limited and unevenly distributed water supply and the role Japan should play. Thanks to its superior water supply technologies and systems, Japan, when compared to countries with chronic water shortages, tends to have relatively minor appreciation and awareness of water as a resource directly tied to existence and daily life. However, we must not forget that Japan's economic and social activities are burdening the world's water to the same degree the country is consuming its own. To address this issue, Japan's excellent drinking water supply and wastewater treatment technologies can be appropriately used to contribute solutions for the problem of securing clean water for the world, while simultaneously taking intellectual property rights into consideration. There has always been water-related business among the members of the international community. However, the progress of Japan's water initiatives cannot be viewed with great optimism because other countries' products may offer inferior technologies but at more competitive prices. Also, Japan lacks a track record in the maintenance and management of the giant water processing systems built from these constituent technologies. Nevertheless, there are favorable signs in evidence. It is necessary to follow up on global progress in promoting water environmental protection and water-related business, thanks to the cooperative efforts of related parties, including government support.

Chapter 5 describes how the development of environmental industries must be made to drive the economy and society. While Japan is a world-class technological leading power in environment-related patents and in other measures, in actual practice this is not necessarily linked to sufficient penetration of world markets or to new product development. Environment-related enterprises must be supported broadly by the country as a whole, en masse along with green innovation, of R&D, human resources development, seeds to needs matching, demand stimulation, social systems arrangements, and so forth. This approach holds promise for using Japan’s excellent technological capabilities to bring about international-scale environmental and economic recovery. In recent years, many countries and international institutions are exploring economic development approaches pivoting on the environment, and calling them “Green Growth.” They are reconsidering the development approaches taken until now. As they seek the further development of humankind while also valuing environmental concerns, a paradigm shift is now occurring, one of great importance in the history of human development. Experimental calculations using indicators that reveal the integration of environmental, social, and economic development show that each individual country’s value system and its work products are reflected within them.

Viewing it with above, in order to develop in stages a new human society that can bring forth a reliably sustainable civilization on this one and only earth, out of the consumer culture that has prevailed until now, it can be seen that Japan has a variety of things to contribute. For this reason, a new concept has emerged that asserts human activities must be assessed not only for their economic value but with various kinds of