Question: Several environmental laws were introduced in Japan in response to rising public concern in what year?
About the article "Japan", section "Environment".

Candidate passages:
In the period of rapid economic growth after World War II, environmental policies were downplayed by the government and industrial corporations; as a result, environmental pollution was widespread in the 1950s and 1960s.
Responding to rising concern about the problem, the government introduced several environmental protection laws in 1970.
The oil crisis in 1973 also encouraged the efficient use of energy because of Japan's lack of natural resources.
Current environmental issues include urban air pollution (NOx, suspended particulate matter, and toxics), waste management, water eutrophication, nature conservation, climate change, chemical management and international co-operation for conservation.
Japan is one of the world's leaders in the development of new environment-friendly technologies, and is ranked 26th best in the world in the 2014 Environmental Performance Index.
As a signatory of the Kyoto Protocol, and host of the 1997 conference which created it, Japan is under treaty obligation to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions and to take other steps to curb climate change.
Beginning in the late 1950s and through the 1960s, Congress reacted to increasing public concern about the impact that human activity could have on the environment.
A key legislative option to address this concern was the declaration of a national environmental policy.
Advocates of this approach argued that without a specific policy, federal agencies were neither able nor inclined to consider the environmental impacts of their actions in fulfilling the agency's mission.
The statutethat ultimately addressed this issue was the National Environmental Policy Act of1969 (NEPA, 42 U.S.C.
§§ 4321-4347).
Senator Henry M. Jackson proposed and helped write S 1075, the bill that eventually became the National Environmental Policy Act.
The law was signed by President Nixon on January 1, 1970.
NEPA was the first of several major environmental laws passed in the 1970s.
It declared a national policy to protect the environment and created a Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) in the Executive Office of the President.
To implement the national policy, NEPA required that a detailed statement of environmental impacts be prepared for all major federal actions significantly affecting the environment.
The "detailed statement" would ultimately be referred to as an environmental impact statement (EIS).
In 1970, President Richard Nixon proposed an executive reorganization that would consolidate many of the federal government's environmental responsibilities under one agency, a new Environmental Protection Agency.
That reorganization proposal was reviewed and passed by the House and Senate.
For at least 10 years before NEPAwas enacted, Congress debated issues that the act would ultimately address.
The actwas modeled on the Resources and Conservation Act of 1959, introduced by SenatorJames E. Murray in the 86th Congress.
That bill would have established an environmental advisory counsel in the office of the President, declared a national environmental policy, and required the preparation of an annual environmental report.
In the years following the introduction of Senator Murray's bill, similar bills were introduced and hearings were held to discuss the state of the environment and Congress's potential responses to perceived problems.
In 1968, a joint House-Senate colloquium was convened by the chairmen of the Senate Committee on Interior andInsular Affairs (Senator Henry Jackson) and the House Committee on Science and Astronautics (Representative George Miller) to discuss the need for and potential means of implementing a national environmental policy.
In the colloquium, some Members of Congress expressed a continuing concern over federal agency actions affecting the environment.
The EPA began regulating greenhouse gases (GHGs) from mobile and stationary sources of air pollution under the Clean Air Act (CAA) for the first time on January 2, 2011.
Standards for mobile sources have been established pursuant to Section 202 of the CAA, and GHGs from stationary sources are controlled under the authority of Part C of Title I of the Act.
See the page Regulation of Greenhouse Gases Under the Clean Air Act for further information.
On July 17, 2013, the EPA renamed its headquarters the William Jefferson Clinton Federal Building, after former president Bill Clinton. 
In 2005, several international organizations including the European Parliament and Human Rights Watch have expressed concern about rising levels of ethnic tension and related violent incidents in Vojvodina.
Of particular concern, according to the reports, is a frequently lax response on the part of the police. 
The SCOPE-Zhongyu Environmental Awards were introduced in 2010, They include three categories of Young scientist awards - environmental sciences; environmental technologies; and environmental management - that are awards annually.
Every second year the Lifetime Achievements Award is given to two scientists with major contribution to the environmental sciences. 
The American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists (AAEES) is a society of professional engineers and scientists who have demonstrated special expertise in environmental engineering or science beyond that normally required for professional practice, in a process similar to what is required for medical and other professional specialty certifications.
In addition to education and experience, Board-Certified Environmental Engineers and Scientists must have passed written and oral examinations and reviews by an admission panel of the Academy.
The Academy's certification program is accredited by the Council of Engineering and Scientific Specialty Boards.
The Academy was founded in 1955 for the principal purpose of serving the public by improving the practice, elevating the standards, and advancing public recognition of environmental engineering through a program of specialty certification of qualified engineers.
The Academy began in 1952, when a group of sanitary engineers working in the public health and defense communities expressed concern about the requirements for professional practice.
This led to the creation of the Committee for the Advancement of Sanitary Engineering of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).
Later, the Joint Committee for the Advancement of Sanitary Engineering was formed, composed of the ASCE, the American Public Health Association, the American Society for Engineering Education, the American Water Works Association and the Water Pollution Control Federation.
With the sponsorship and support of these five organizations, the American Sanitary Engineering Intersociety Board was incorporated under the laws of the State of Delaware on October 21, 1955.
Certified sanitary engineers were identified as Diplomates (now also known as Board Certified Environmental Engineers) of the American Academy of Sanitary Engineers, and were listed on a roster with the names of each member and their specialties as recognized by the Board.
Other organizations joining as sponsors included the American Institute of Chemical Engineers in 1957 and the Air Pollution Control Association in 1962.
In 1966 the name of the Board was changed to the "Environmental Engineering Intersociety Board" (EEIB) and the name of the roster from the "American Academy of Sanitary Engineers" to the "American Academy of Environmental Engineers" (AAEE).
A year later, in 1967, the Board of Trustees changed the American Academy of Environmental Engineers from just a roster of certified engineers to an organization with its own rights, bylaws and officers.
This new organization was charged with working cooperatively with the EEIB in the advancement of all aspects of environmental engineering.
The American Public Works Association joined as a sponsor of these organizations in 1969.
The AAEE and the EEIB were merged into one organization in 1973.
In 1976 the National Society of Professional Engineers became a sponsor of the Academy and it was followed by the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors in 1977, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1981 and the Solid Waste Association of North America in 1988.
In 2011, the Academy decided to award board certifications to environmental scientists, which led to the adoption of its current name on 1 January 2013.
Requirements for board certification include a baccalaureate or higher degree in engineering or science from an accredited university, not less than eight years of professional engineering or scientific experience, and an examination on the practice of environmental engineering or science in a particular area of specialization.
Exams are offered on the following topics for engineers: Air Pollution Control, Environmental Sustainability, General Environmental Engineering, Hazardous Waste Management, Industrial Hygiene, Radiation Protection, Solid Waste Management and Water Supply/Wastewater Management.
Scientists may choose from tests covering Air Resources, Environmental Biology, Environmental Chemistry, Environmental Microbiology, Environmental Toxicology, Groundwater and the Subsurface Environment, Surface Water Resources, or Sustainability Science.