## (2) Systematically ensuring marine refuse processing facilities

As there is difficulty to ensure final disposal processing facilities for refuse in in-land areas, in order to construct the necessary landfills for the final disposal of general refuse in ports after carrying out the appropriate recycling, the usage and reorganization of ports are in progress and marine processing facilities are being developed. In particular, in Osaka Bay, general refuse is being received from Tokyo, Osaka, 4 prefectures and 175 municipalities based on the Osaka Bay Phoenix Project.

### 3. Recycling of automobiles and ships

## (1) Construction of an automobile recycling system

Based on the “Act on Recycling, etc. of End-of-Life Vehicles (Automobile Recycling Act)”, the registration should be struck out according to the “Road Transport Vehicle Act” after confirming the decomposition of end-of-life automobiles, and the automobile weight tax refund scheme for end-of-life automobiles is also being implemented and the promotion of the appropriate handling of end-of-life automobiles and the prevention of illegal disposals is underway.

Moreover, based on the $ 13^{th} $ article of the Automobile Recycling Act, discussion concerning this system was carried out in the joint meeting between the Industrial Structure Council and C and the report regarding the evaluation and review of the implementation progress of this system was summarized.

## (2) Recycling of ships

Large-scale ship recycling $ ^{1} $ (ship recycling) has been implemented mainly by developing countries (e.g. Bangladesh and India). The problems of repeated accidents with casualties and ocean pollution have been observed in ship recycling facilities. In order to solve these problems, our country lead the discussion centered in the International Maritime Organization (IMO). As a result, in May 2009, “the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships, 2009” (Ship Recycling Convention) was adopted in Hong Kong. This convention obligated the surveying of and the holding of certificates for ships and ship recycling facilities respectively and required the prohibition of the use of asbestos and PCB when building new ships. In addition, our country is leading the formation of various guidelines for supporting the implementation of this convention.

In Japan, in order to construct an environmentally-friendly ship recycling system for an advanced country, various measures are being carried out, including verification experiments for dismantling ships, the evaluation on environmental effects and business value, research and investigation of new technology methods, etc.

On the other hand, privately-owned pleasure boats are mainly by FRP (Fiber Reinforced Plastics). The social problem of illegal disposal is occurring because there is currently no appropriate disposal rule established. Therefore, in order to push forward the appropriate disposal of FRP ships, recycling technology was established and measures have been carried out for forming processing rules. Through these actions, the Japan Boating Industry Association is working on FRP ship recycling nationally under the support of MLIT.

### 4. Promotion of Material Procurement that Contributes to Environmental Burden Reduction

## (1) Measures in green procurement $ ^{2} $

Due to the partial change to government basic policy based on the “Act on Promotion of Procurement of Eco-Friendly Goods and Services by the State and Other Entities (Green Purchase Act)”, the “Policy for Promoting the Procurement of Eco-Friendly Goods” was formulated. Based on this policy, in terms of materials, construction machineries, construction methods, and target objects used in public construction, the procurement of eco-friendly goods is being pushed forward actively.

## (2) Promotion of wood use

Wood is a material that needs less processing energy than other materials comparatively and it is an environmental-friendly material capable of contributing to the prevention of global warming if it is used in the long-term and at various stages. Therefore, wood usage is being promoted in public construction. Moreover, in the procurement policy based on the “Green Purchase Act”, the procurement of public construction that uses wood cut for spacing between trees is being actively pushed forward. Furthermore, technology development, supporter development and the promotion of wooden residential housing utilizing regional wood resources are being actively worked out.

## Section 3 – Preserving and Regenerating a Beautiful and Abundant Natural Environment

### 1. Measures for conserving biodiversity

(1) Measures for the $ 10^{th} $ meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 10) In the $ 10^{th} $ meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 10) held in Nagoya City in Aichi Prefecture in October 2010, one of the major subjects is the revision of the strategic plan for the convention