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).

To provide guidelines for Japan’s contribution to building a future framework for the world, the Cabinet endorsed “Becoming a Leading Environmental Nation Strategy in the 21st Century ~ Japan’s Strategy for a Sustainable Society” in June 2007, setting out the direction of the environmental policies that Japan should implement in cooperation with other countries. This document cites “the construction of a sound material-cycle society through 3R activities” as one of the eight priority strategies to be rolled out within the next year or two. Specifically, this centers on two goals: efforts to construct a SMC Society in Asia and the promotion of the 3R Initiative, proposed by Japan, within the G8. In order to achieve the first goal, the national strategy stipulates that Japan should carry out the following actions: disseminate Japan’s 3R systems, technologies and experience to the international community and establish an international information center on the 3Rs along with common rules on the 3Rs; integrate Japan’s accomplishments on sustainable resource circulation with the formulation of the East Asia Sound Material-Cycle Society Vision, which spells out the basic concept and targets for establishing an East Asia SMC Society, and thereby seek to create a sound and smoothly functioning resource cycle across East Asia.

With respect to the Asian region, Japan has been supporting Asian countries' activities since the launch of the 3R Initiative, in line with Japan's Action Plan to Promote Global Zero-Waste Societies. This support includes assisting counties in developing a 3R plan or strategy and providing information on 3R systems, technologies and expe-

Figure 4-1-6 Examples of material flow information and their relation to policy targets

Source: Prepared by the Ministry of the Environment, based on OECD data