be disposed of and easy to be reused or recycled. Now we have problems that there are an excessively large amount of wastes and that it is difficult to reuse or recycle them. Therefore, the extended producer responsibility is one of the important ideas for solving such problems. (Table 3-1)

### C. Fundamental Plan for Establishing a Sound Material-Cycle Society (Sound Material-Cycle Society Fundamental Plan)

The Fundamental Law for Establishing a Sound Material-Cycle Society provides that the Fundamental Plan for Establishing a Sound Material-Cycle Society should be formulated as a fundamental plan related to the establishment of a sound material-cycle society.

The Fundamental Plan for Establishing a Sound Material-Cycle Society is a central device for comprehensively and systematically implementing policies related to the establishment of a sound material-cycle society, and it provides the image of what a sound material-cycle society should be like, sets numerical targets for the establishment of a sound material-cycle society, and shows the direction of actions taken by the national government and other actors.

The second Sound Material-Cycle Society Fundamental Plan decided upon by the Cabinet in March 2008, provides that all actors, including ordinary citizens, business operators, NPOs, NGOs, universities, local public bodies, and the national government should cooperate with one another to take actions for the establishment of a sound material-cycle society.

Above all, the plan states that the national government should take the following comprehensive actions: (1) the integrated creation of both a low-carbon society and a society in harmony with nature, (2) the promotion of creation of “regional resource recycling zones,” (3) the promotion of a people’s movement for the 3Rs, (4) the thorough promotion of businesses for a sound material-cycle society, such as green purchasing, (5) improvement of the mechanism of the 3Rs focused on waste generation reduction, (6) improve increasingly sophisticated techniques and systems for the 3Rs, (7) understand information and develop of human resources, and (8) establish an international sound material-cycle society.

In order to steadily implement the Sound Material-Cycle Society Fundamental Plan, the Central Environment Council is required to check how the policies based on the Sound Material-Cycle Society Fundamental Plan have been implemented every year and as necessary report the direction of future policies to the national government. In fiscal 2009, for the second time, the council checked how the second Sound Material-Cycle Society Fundamental Plan had been implemented.

Specifically, the council had seven intensive deliberations, based on the actions taken by the industrial world, business operators, and local public bodies and four public hearings with relevant government ministries and agencies, and compiled the results of the audit in March 2010. The report of these results highlighted, as future issues to tackle, consideration of a new shape of sound material-cycle society from a long-term perspective, further promotion of the achievement of regional resource recycling, strategic advancement of establishing a sound material-cycle society through the promotion of businesses for the society, further efforts toward penetration of 3Rs to the world centered on Asia through the Regional 3R Forum in Asia based on the possibility that there are great changes in conventional systems such as changes in prices of resources including recyclable ones, changes in industrial structures and development of infrastructures and the numerical target, i.e., reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 25% (Figure 3-2).

## (2) Waste Management and Public Cleansing Law (Waste Management Law)

A. Comprehensive Actions in Waste Management

In May 2001, the Minister of the Environment decided and officially announced the “Basic Guidelines for the Comprehensive and Systematic Promotion of Waste Reduction Measures and Other Appropriate Treatments” (Basic Guidelines).

Table 3-1 Extended producer responsibility described in Extended Producer Responsibility: A Guidance Manual for Governments by OECD
(1) Definitions	An environmental policy approach in which a producer's responsibility, physical and/or financial, for a product is extended to the post-consumer stage of a product's life cycle. More specifically, (1) Producers accept responsibility when they design their products to minimize environmental impacts over the product's life cycle (2) Producers accept physical and/or economic responsibility for those environmental impacts that cannot be eliminated by design.
(2) Primary function	To transfer the financial and/or physical responsibility, in whole or part, of waste treatment from local government authorities and the general taxpayer to the producer
(3) Four principal goals purposes	(1) Source reduction (natural resource conservation, materials conservation) (2) Waste prevention (3) Design of more environmentally compatible products (4) Closure of material-use loops to promote sustainable development
(4) Effectiveness	To pressure parties concerned in the upstream side design and selection of materials for a product; and to enable sending of appropriate signals to producers so that they will include external environmental costs incurred by their products
(5) Shared responsibilities	In the product chain, from manufacturing to disposal, shared responsibilities among all actors are an inherent part of extended producer responsibility
(6) Examples of specific policy approaches	(1) Product take-back (2) Deposit/refund (3) Surcharge/tax (4) Advance disposal fees (5) Minimum recycled content requirements (6) Leasing

Source: Created by the Ministry of the Environment, based on Extended Producer Responsibility: A Guidance Manual for Governments (2001) by OECD