was then easier to distribute only those substances actually needed.

There has been little promotion of composting since then, except by certain municipalities in rural farming regions, but composting again began attracting attention in recent years as a means of biomass use. In 2000, the Food Waste Recycling Law was instituted and recycling targets were set. In 2007, this law was amended, mainly to define exceptions in those cases where “a recycling loop” is created by all parties concerned. Supported by these frameworks, new efforts towards composting have now been launched in many regions. While solving the problems described in (i) and (ii), above, these projects are also attempting to address the problem described in (iii) by establishing a face-to-face relationship with farmers in order to encourage collaboration.

## (3) The post-high economic growth period

As its economy grew, Japan faced problems such as increases in the amounts of waste generated by business activities and the amount of water pollution caused by illegally dumped waste oil. During the so-called Pollution Diet session in 1970, the Public Cleansing Law was revised and renamed the Waste Management and Public Cleansing Law (Waste Management Law). This law defined the differences between municipal solid waste and industrial waste and, while holding municipal governments responsible for the disposal of municipal solid waste, as before, assigned the responsibility for the disposal of industrial waste to waste-generating businesses, based on the Polluter Pays Principle.

With respect to the disposal of hazardous industrial waste, particularly strict standards were imposed on the final disposal of sludge and slag containing mercury, cadmium and other harmful substances following the entry into effect of the Waste Management Law in 1971, aimed at safeguarding people’s health.

Disposal facilities were also enhanced, following the institution of the Waste Management Law. On the other hand, negative effects of economic growth surfaced in connection with various waste disposal issues. One of these was the so-called Tokyo Waste War, a waste disposal dispute that started in 1971 between a municipal government and local residents over waste disposal. This became an issue of serious public concern. In those days, since the final disposal site within metropolitan Tokyo only had a limited incineration capacity, some domestic kitchen garbage was carried to a final disposal site in Koto Ward. Meanwhile, while Suginami Ward had a plan to build new incineration facilities in order to reduce the volume of waste, it could not implement this plan because of community objections against the construction project. The Suginami Ward Government had no other choice but to continue to carry waste to the final disposal site in Koto Ward. The Koto Ward Government, which regarded this act as forcing it to accept unwanted waste, began refusing to accept waste from Suginami Ward and this issue then developed into a serious public dispute. It is safe to say that this incident was the very first formative experience from which Japan leaned valuable lessons on how to select a site for waste disposal facilities and how to cope with local residents opposing the project.

After overcoming the first and second oil crises, Japan achieved a level of economic growth driven by many technological innovations, leading to the production and consumption of a wide variety of products. This also brought about changes in the composition of urban waste.