expecting “good” surpassed the ratio of those anticipating “bad.” Energy saving products, such as LED lighting and insulation materials, and energy saving consulting services, such as ESCO projects, ranked at the top (see table).

Recent activities of consumers and corporations are it will be important to provide policy guidelines and support for cooperation with industries and financial sectors, and then we can achieve growth of environmental businesses.

Business Confidence of Environmental Businesses (Top-Five DI Businesses)

considered to adapt to environ-

ment, so they need information

and expect acceleration of renew-

able energies such as wind power,

hydraulic power, and biogas power

generation will also increase.

Companies will make decisions

for R&D, facility investment and

hiring based on such mid-

and long-term business forecasts.

There will be many cases that

require serious decisions for high-

cost investment and management

resources (see table). Forecasting

the future is uncertainty and

inevitable, but for stability in

developing environmental business,

Present	In 6 months	In 10 years
Energy-saving home appliance (government-designated eco-points merchandise,)	41 Wastewater management services	24	Energy saving and energy management
Wastewater management services	27 High efficiency water heaters	22	Energy saving consulting services
High efficiency water heaters	21 Lease and rental	20	Education, training, and information-provision services
Water supply	20 Energy saving consulting services	19	Reduction of environmental impact, resource-saving technologies, processes
Renewable energy facilities	18 Energy-saving vehicles	18	Renewable energy facilities

Note: Excluded business categories for which the number of responses were 10 or less

Source: Ministry of the Environment's "December 2010 Economic Survey of Environmental Industries"

### 3. Funding and Environmental Finance to Support Technologies that Contribute to Creation of a Sustainable Society

(1) Expenditure of Research Costs in Environmental Fields in Japan, and Related Trends

As discussed in the previous subsection, new technologies that would contribute to solution of environmental problems could not be achieved without active efforts by each participant. Private-sector companies are investing large amounts of money for research and development and education of employees to secure and strengthen technological competitiveness in the market. Such actions indicate that, in order to promote the technological development that is required to

Figure 4-1-9 Environmental Research Expenditures and Their Ratios in the Total Science and Technology Research Expenditures

Environmental research expenditures (left axis)

Ratio of environmental research expenditures in total expenditure (right axis)

Source: Created by the Ministry of the Environment, using information based on the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications "Survey of Research and Development 2010"

address environmental problems, it is necessary to make investment in research and development accordingly.

Looking at science and technology research expenditures in Japan, the research expenditures in the environmental field have been given more priority than other areas. The research expenditures in the environmental field show a steadily rising trend since FY 2002 and had increased by approximately JPY 400 billion by FY 2009 (Figure 4-1-9). In addition, the ratio that the expenditures in the environmental field makes up of the total amount of science and technology research expenditure has been consistently rising since FY 2002 (Figure 4-1-9). It should be noted that in FY 2009 the entire science and

Figure 4-1-10 Trends in the Total Expenditures of "Fundamental Measures and the Ratio in Environmental Conservation Expenditure

Total Amount of Fundamental Measures (left axis)

Ratio in environmental conservation expenditure (right axis)

Source : Ministry of the Environment