Japan’s Experience with Environmental Pollution and Innovation

This section has described green innovation, and concludes with a look back at Japan’s past initiatives to see how serious air pollution and health hazards have been overcome in a variety of ways.

As a result of collaborative efforts between the public and private sectors to put the nation's economy on the fast track, Japan achieved unprecedented growth during the post-1955 economic boom. Real economic growth rates during this period were: 8.8% in the late 1950s; 9.3% in the early 1960s; and 12.4% in the late 1960s. As the dominant source of energy shifted from coal to petroleum, energy consumption over the decade jumped by 300%. A comparison between 1955 and 1970 in terms of the proportions of heavy and chemical industry against industrial production as a whole shows a drastic increase (44.7% to 62.6%), while these proportions against overall exports also surged (from 33.7% to 73.0%), suggesting a shift from light industry to heavy and chemical industries. However, since heavy and chemical industries have large potential emissions per production volume, the shift triggered serious environmental pollution on an enormous scale.

Tremendous efforts by various entities were required for Japan to overcome this environmental pollution, including citizen campaigns involving injured persons, innovative efforts by local public authorities to ensure the health of local residents, the establishment of a system to improve the situation led by the central government, and the development and introduction of technical approaches by the private sector. Innovation to overcome environmental pollution damage was only accomplished through comprehensively promoting these efforts and initiatives.

Japan's Experience with Environmental Pollution and Innovation

Group	Initiative	Achievement
Local residents	·Citizen campaigns to protest construction of industrial complexes, campaigns by victims of environmental pollution, etc.	Campaigns motivated local public authorities, the central government, and the private sector to take steps to combat environmental pollution.
Local governments	·Setting environmental criteria stricter than national criteria at the time and introducing total volume control.·Establishing agreements on pollution prevention with the private sector and providing technical guidance.	Responded to the desperate situation in local communities and drove innovative efforts by the central government to improve legal systems.
Central government	·Establishing a comprehensive legal system based on the Basic Law for Environmental Pollution (1967) and instituting or amending environment-related laws.·Supporting financially to promote measures against environmental pollution control program.·Promoting countermeasures to reduce sulphur content and fuel switching.·Providing low-interest policy financing to encourage investment in environmental pollution prevention.·Establishing the Environment Agency (1971).·Establishing a system to compensate for health damages caused by environmental pollution based on the Polluter-Pays Principle (PPP).	Established a legal system for environmental pollution countermeasures.
Private sector	·Enhancing investment in the prevention of environmental pollution.·Developing engineers who could execute countermeasures for environmental pollution.	Alleviated serious air pollution. Spread the concept of CSR.

Source: Ministry of the Environment based on the Review Committee for Japan’s Experience of Air Pollution, Japan’s Experience of Pollution

Thanks to these efforts, environmental pollution in Japan has dramatically improved. How, then, were these countermeasures evaluated from an economic standpoint? A unique form of research called MERGE (a model for estimating the regional and global effects of greenhouse gas reductions) is a dynamic optimization model that recaptures the history of combatting air pollution in Japan using an economic model analysis. The model was jointly developed by Alan Manne of Stanford University and Richard Richelts from the Electric Power Research Institute. The research points out that if the introduction of flue gas desulfurization had been delayed by 10 years, the cumulative damage due to air pollution would have been 12 trillion yen or more against an increase of 6 trillion yen in GDP. If the countermeasures had been introduced eight years earlier, damage reduction would have been in excess of GDP reduction. In other words, there would have been a high likelihood of even more economic benefit than there actually was.

Japan made a vast amount of investment in the 1970s to prevent environmental pollution, and successfully avoided an enormous amount of damage. The environmental protection measures therefore brought economic benefits as well. This case can be considered a best practice for building a green economy through innovation.

# Section 2 Japan's Initiatives to Achieve a Low-Carbon Society

Preventing and adapting to global warming is a common challenge for all people, which must be achieved through international partnerships. This section provides an overview of efforts to build low-carbon communities in Japan and abroad. It also introduces innovative green innovation initiatives for achieving a low-carbon society.

1 World Trends in Achieving a Low-Carbon Society (COP 17)

The 17th Conference of the Parties (COP 17) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) took place in Durban, South Africa between November 28 and December 11, 2011.

The Japanese government negotiated in hopes of establishing a fair and effective international framework including every major emitting country. Minister for the Environment Goshi Hosono explained the following in his speech: the Japanese government is giving its maximum effort to overcome the national calamity resulting from the Great East Japan Earthquake; Japanese policy strongly addressing climate change will not be changed now or in the future; and the Japanese government is studying the formulation of an ideal mix strategy and plan for new energy, and reviewing future countermeasures for combating global warming (Photo 4-2-1).

As a result of the negotiations, agreement was obtained to establish the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action as a process for a future legal framework that will be enforced in every country. Furthermore, robust achievements were also accomplished in implementing the Cancun Agreements, such as the basic design of the Green Climate Fund and the formulation of Measurement, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) guidelines for reducing a country's emissions. Under the framework of the Kyoto Protocol, an agreement was reached for setting the Second Commitment Period. However, some countries, including Japan, announced their nonparticipation in the Second Commitment Period since it makes no contribution to building a future comprehensive framework. Consequently, an outcome document was issued reflecting this standpoint (Figure 4-2-1).

After 2013, Japan will make the utmost ongoing efforts to control its actions by adopting domestic countermeasures to combat global warming. It will also inevitably continue to support global policies related to climate change based on its responsible position as a developed country. At the COP 17 session, Japan announced its commitment to Japan's Vision and Actions towards Low Carbon Growth and a Climate Resilient World to define its international contribution to be made in the future. Japan also made a firm step towards providing 15 billion dollars as aid for climate change measures adopted by developing countries until 2012 by the public and private sectors to the international community (short-term funding), an initiative that Tokyo committed to at the COP 15 session.

Figure 4-2-1 Roadmap to Future Frameworks

Source: Ministry of the Environment