Development Plan into which a perspective on cooperation with measures against global warming was incorporated was decided on by the Cabinet in March 2008.

“Subsidy System for Promoting the Establishment of a Sound Material-Cycle Society,” under which targets for promoting the 3Rs of wastes were set to promote the development of waste treatment and recycling facilities cross-jurisdictionally and comprehensively, was established in fiscal 2005. Under this system, municipal waste treatment facilities, such as heat recovery facilities, high-efficiency raw material and fuel recycling facilities, sludge recycling centers, final disposal sites, recycling centers, have been developed to promote the generation control, cyclical use, and proper treatment of wastes. In fiscal 2009, 40 regional plans for effectively using this subsidy were formulated.

Furthermore, social capital development programs that utilize private finance initiatives (PFI) to develop municipal waste treatment facilities (PFI programs) were subsidized.

When the Waste Management and Public Cleansing Law was revised in June 2000, requirements for business operators to be designated as waste treatment center operators were relaxed in order to promote the further use of the Solid Waste Treatment Center System. In addition, in order to support the development of first-class waste treatment facilities that include the private sector, such excellent facilities are qualified as specified facilities, based on the “Law to Promote the Development of Specified Facilities for the Disposal of Industrial Waste.” In fiscal 2009, one corporation was designated as a waste treatment center, and, at the end of the same fiscal year, 19 corporations were designated. In addition, the subsidy system created in fiscal 2000 for model development projects by industrial waste treatment facilities has promoted the further development of industrial waste treatment facilities operated by the public sector. In fiscal 2009, four projects for developing controlled landfill sites for domestic wastes and industrial waste, etc. were subsidized.

Among the greater metropolitan areas where final disposal sites are especially difficult to secure, in the Kinki area, the Osaka Bay Regional Offshore Environmental Improvement Center promoted the smooth development of regional waste disposal facilities and landfill facilities.

In addition, soft measures seen in the sorting and collecting garbage, etc. by municipalities, which would lead to more reduction and recycling of wastes, were assisted. The Waste Management and Public Cleansing Law revised in 1992 was enforced in December 1993, and, since then, necessary regulations, such as for the export of wastes to be checked by the Minister of the Environment and import of wastes to be approved by the same minister, have been imposed on the export and import of wastes under the principle of domestic treatment. In 2009, 27 exports were checked and 18 imports approved by the minister, according to the Waste Management and Public Cleansing Law. (For information on the transboundary movement of hazardous wastes, refer to (9) in 4, Section 2.)

In addition, in order to improve conditions for waste-discharging enterprises to select excellent waste-treating enterprises, a project for developing a larger number of excellent industrial waste-treating enterprises has been carried out. Created as part of this project was the “Excellence Evaluation System,” in which the 47 prefectures, at the time of license renewal, check that waste-treating enterprises meet certain standards and as of the end of March 2009, 2,968 projects and 306 enterprises has been certified. On the other hand, some local public bodies operate a system in which waste-treating enterprises can be checked if they meet the necessary evaluation standards, regardless of the time of license renewal. Also in this system, 730 projects and 191 enterprises are certified to meet the standards, showing a steady increase in numbers.

Moreover, the introduction of the electronic manifest system has a lot of advantages, such as higher-efficiency administrative work, compliance improvement, and forgery prevention, which rapidly increased the adoption rate of the system to about 19% at the end of fiscal 2009. However, the number is still smaller than expected. Therefore, in order to achieve the target that the adoption rate of the electronic manifest system should be increased to 50%, which is set in “IT New Reform Strategy” (January 19, 2006) compiled by the IT Strategy Headquarters, systematic and comprehensive efforts are being made to spread and promote the system.

B. Promotion of Waste Reduction, etc. Based on the Waste Management and Public Cleansing Law

According to the Waste Management and Public Cleansing Law revised in 1997, a so-called “Recycling Certification System” was created. In this system, an enterprise does not need a license for a specific type of business and facility installation when the means of recycling specific wastes by a waste-treating enterprise has been certified by the Ministry of the Environment to meet certain standards, such as no expected problem with the conservation of the living environment. At the end of fiscal 2009, 63 cases were certified in municipal waste treatment and 48 cases in industrial waste treatment.

In addition, according to the Waste Management and Public Cleansing Law revised in 2003, a so-called “Wider-area Treatment Certification System” was created. In this system, when a waste-treating enterprise is certified by the Minister of the Environment as suitable for proper waste treatment including waste reduction because of its wider-area operation, no license for a specific type of business is required of the enterprise. In October 2008, waste printing machines and waste devices for cellular phones were included in municipal waste subject to the Wider-area Treatment Certification System. In order to promote the collection and recycling of wastes by manufacturers, etc., themselves, by the end of fiscal 2009, 81 cases were certified in municipal waste treatment and 184 cases in industrial waste treatment.

According to the report “Ideal State of Municipal waste Treatment by Municipalities for the Establishment of a Sound Material-Cycle Society” submitted by the Central Environment Council in February 2005, the Ministry of the Environment decided that the whole national government would build appropriate recycling and treatment systems focused on the 3Rs, this was based on the fact that the objective of the waste-recycling administration has been shifting from conventional matters, such as conservation of the living environment, improvement of public health, and solutions to pollution problems, to the establishment of a