Every day, hundreds of telephone calls barrage city hall from residents who have trouble in sorting their trash. Sometimes trash bags are scattered about, because city employees leave bags when trash isn't sorted correctly. But a questionnaire by Asahi Newspaper showed that major cities in Japan have little will to introduce the collecting system. It is partly because municipal governments, which are in charge of collecting and managing trash, have to bear heavier financial burden than those manufacturers. The current law has the system in which only local governments and residents take responsibility.
Producer takes responsibility for their products until they are turned into waste.
One year has passed since the critical accident which occurred at the JCO uranium processing plant in Tokaimura, located in Ibaraki Prefecture, on September 30, 1999. It was the worst accident of this kind in Japan. At least 439 people were exposed to radiation and two employees died. About 180 people were forced to evacuate and 300,000 were advised to stay indoors. The prefectural government announced that direct damages amounted to about 15.3 billion yen, apart from perceived damages to tourism, agricultural products, fisheries, and real estate prices.