## (2) Efforts by the international community and Japan

Japan faced serious waste management problems in the 1990s, such as a shortage of final disposal sites and large-scale illegal dumping cases, all of which raised concerns about environmental pollution. However, radical policy reforms implemented in the early stages of these problems allowed Japan to become a world leader in the establishment of a SMC Society by the early 21st century.

Based on such experience, at the G8 Sea Island Summit in 2004, Japan proposed the “3R Initiative,” aimed at internationally promoting the establishment of a SMC Society through 3R activities. The 3Rs refer to restraining generation (Reduce), reuse (Re-use) and regeneration (Recycle), and represent the concept of balancing environmental conservation and economic growth through the effective use of resources. The G8 leaders endorsed this proposal and adopted it as the G8’s new initiative, which led to the announcement of the “Science and Technology for Sustainable Development : ‘3R’ Action Plan and Progress on Implementation.”

Following on from this, the Ministerial Conference on the 3R Initiative was held in Tokyo in April 2005 to officially launch the 3R Initiative. On this occasion, Japan announced “Japan’s Action Plan for a Worldwide Sound Material-Cycle Society through the 3R Initiative” (also known as “Japan’s Action Plan to Promote Global Zero-Waste Societies”). Japan put forward another proposal at the G8 Summit in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in 2006, and the G8 countries all agreed that they would set appropriate targets, taking account of resource productivity, furthering efforts to optimize the resource cycle. In addition to its involvement at summit meetings, Japan has also been leading international discussions on 3R promotion and fostering political dialogue and information sharing through the Senior Officials Meetings on the 3R Initiative, held in March 2006 and October 2007.

Japan’s leadership in other international discussions, not just those of the G8, can be observed in its involvement with the OECD’s ongoing project on material flows and resource productivity and in the fact that a Japanese delegate serves as the chair of the Working Group on Environmental Information under the OECD Environment Policy Committee. From the viewpoint of promoting the 3R Initiative, Japan also supports the International Panel for Sustainable Resource Management, which was organized by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 2007 for the purpose of scientifically evaluating the environmental effects of the use of natural resources.

In April 2008, the OECD-UNEP Conference on Resource Efficiency was held in Paris, bringing together relevant ministers, senior government officials in charge, experts, businesses, NGOs and the like from around the world. The participants affirmed the importance of sharing best practices on national initiatives and continuing efforts to improve resource efficiency. The meeting of OECD Environmental Ministers that took place following the above conference also reaffirmed the perception that 3R activities and resource productivity improvement are of major importance with regard to restricting natural resource consumption and reducing environmental burdens (Figure4-1-6).