Figure 4-1-12 Trends of Resource Productivity

Source : Ministry of the Environment

Figure 4-1-13 Trends in the cyclical use rate

Source: Ministry of the Environment

In addition to these three indicators, above, two supplementary indicators were also set as targets: (i) resource productivity excluding the input of earth and rock resources and (ii) coordination with efforts directed towards a low-carbon society.

As a result of a progress review of the First Fundamental Plan, it was pointed out that, as far as resource productivity is concerned, the input of non-metallic mineral resources (earth and rock resources) has a large impact on the total natural resources input. This point was addressed by setting an additional target that supplements current resource productivity, namely, (i) resource productivity excluding the input of earth and rock resources. The target figure is about ¥770,000 per ton in FY 2015, which corresponds to 30% improvement compared to approximately ¥590,000 per ton in FY 2000.

In order for the indicator to measure (ii) coordination with efforts directed towards a low-carbon society, a target for emission reduction measures in the waste sector was set in line with the revised Kyoto Protocol Target Achievement Plan: a reduction of 7.8 million tons of $ CO_{2} $ by FY 2010. In the future, it would be desirable that a target be set for net greenhouse gas emissions from the waste sector (calculated by subtracting greenhouse gas emissions derived from fossil fuels for which waste power

Figure 4-1-14 Trends in the final disposal amount of waste, since 1990

generation and wastes recycled as fuels or raw materials is to be substituted). However, since there is no internationally recognized and agreed common method of calculation available, including that for sector-specific distribution, Japan will just collate this data for the time being.

The Second Fundamental Plan also introduced the following indicators to monitor changes for use as reference indicators for future policy implementation.

One of these indicators is the resource productivity of fossil resources. This is a noteworthy indicator from the viewpoint of anti-global warming measures, considering that fossil resources are exhaustible and therefore need to be used efficiently.

Total material requirement (TMR), or the hidden flow, was included as an additional indicator to help increase awareness of global environmental problems. TMR includes hidden flows such as materials that are extracted in conjunction with target resources during resource extraction and are then removed as waste. TMR is considered as a quantitative measure of the sustainability of resource use and the global environmental burdens derived from resource use. Reducing new resource extraction from nature and promoting cyclical use of metallic resources will help reduce the domestic and overseas environmental burdens caused by resource use in Japan. This indicator can also be used to evaluate progress in the recycling of rare resources (difficult to measure simply by weight). An example of TMR measurement can be seen with regard to imported metallic resources, which are closely related to 3R measures. Estimates show that the TMR associated with Japan's imports of metallic resources is approximately 2.1 billion tons, which is 21 times the amount of actual pure metal imported (about 0.1 billion tons).

When measuring TMR, accurate information needs to be gathered on the grade of ore collected from each mine for the extraction of metallic resources. However, since Japan imports most of the metallic resources in demand, it is not very easy for Japan to gather accurate information on ore grades and so on from overseas mines. Therefore,