ENVIRONMENT-JAPAN: Stepping Up Efforts to Curb Air Pollution

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Sep 29 1995 (IPS) - Japan hopes to bring down air pollution levels by tightening controls on vehicle emissions, but the auto industry is worried stricter standards would mean more costs for car companies still reeling from the effects of recession.

Masaru Fujita, an Environment Agency official, says the government is alarmed at the worsening air pollution in Japan and plans to impose more stringent controls by April next year.

They will be followed by another set of restrictions in 1998, aimed at bringing down current pollution levels by 60 to 64 percent.

Auto industry sources say the 1998 targets are the most stringent in the industrialised world and will damage the financial health of recession-hit car firms.

The government’s plans to revise laws next year, aimed primarily at making imported gasoline lead-free, have already forced car manufacturers to develop new filters that will retain 80 percent of harmful exhaust dust.

Japan was among the more than 100 countries that signed a treaty at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro to cut greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2000.

But government officials here admit Japan is likely to fall short of that target. At the rate the country is going, they say, pollution levels could even increase by about three percent.

Japan, which had been a world leader in limiting exhaust emissions from vehicles in the 1970s, is now lagging behind other industrialised countries.

The main reason for this, says Fujita, is the increase in the number of vehicles on Japanese roads, mostly diesel trucks. Japan now has more than 16 million vehicles, 10 percent more than the figure five years ago.

Since 1970 Japan has adopted a number of measures to limit vehicle emissions, which have increased with the expansion of the economy.

Last year the government announced controls on the worst polluters, diesel trucks and buses, which belch out more than 70 percent of air pollutants in Japan.

It also imposed stringent restrictions on soot for the first time in Japan. Under the guidelines, particles in exhaust must not exceed 0.2-0.7 g per kilometre.

Mitsubishi Motors Corp, a major producer of trucks, says it has been spending 200 million dollars a year on research to comply with the new requirements.

“To meet the latest standard we will have to double that amount in the next three years,” said a spokesperson for the company.

Hino Motors Ltd, another truck manufacturer, says it has spent more than 500 million dollars for research and development in the past five years.

The tougher regulations planned for next year mean truck companies will have to come up with new and better engine designs and exhaust gas recycling systems.

“Those are technologies that Japanese truck manufacturers have never had to deal with. The costs are incalculable,” says Hino’s Tadayuki Suzuki.

But critics complain the government has long been dragging its feet in controlling air pollution. It should have enacted drastic measures much earlier, they say.

“Measures enacted up to now have been gradual, and approved only after a dialogue with the Ministry of Transport which is closely associated with the interests of auto companies. Targets are set after consultation with car firms. That won’t work,”says Testunori Iida, a researcher at Nihon Soken, a private company.

Iida says this is why Japan’s air pollution is worsening despite the government’s widely touted pledges to control the problem.

He points out, for instance, that the government encourages the use of trucks for transport instead of electric trains because costs, apart from gasoline, are borne by the consumer rather than the company. Road taxes are also an important source of finances for the Transport Minisry, he notes.

The Environment Agency, however, along with the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, is already putting a lot of emphasis on technology development as the best means to control exhaust fumes.

Officials report targets such as producing 490,000 non- polluting vehicles of various kinds by the year 2000.

With government assistance, new technology will be developed to enable large trucks to run not only on gas but also on electricity because there will be more space under the hood for a double set- up. A model will be ready by next year.

Test runs of methanol-powered buses are scheduled to be conducted this fiscal year. In addition, authorities will set safety standards for light trucks and mini vans that run on natural gas.

Japan is also assisting similar programmes in South-east Asian countries that are also facing pollution problems as a result of their rapidly developing economies.