By Suvendrini Kakuchi
TOKYO, Oct 12 1995 (IPS)

With Japan now taking firm measures to clean up its own house, environmental campaigners are worried that industrialists will seek out greener pastures across Asia where ecological safeguards are not in place.

Japan’s auto industry and its power generating companies have in the past year come under increasing pressure from independent campaigners and more recently as well, the official Environmental Agency has also begun to crack the whip.

Already, the Environment Agency has announced that more stringent controls on auto-pollution will be introduced by April next year. These will be followed by another set of restrictions in 1998, aimed at bringing down current pollution levels by as much as 60 per cent.

The next step that should be taken, say environmentalists, is for the Japanese authorities to help economically-weaker Asian nations to protect themselves from Japanese industrialists who may try to set up shop elsewhere — mainly to cut down on cost, but also to get away from the environmental pressure at home.

Environmental protection laws are still lax in most Asian countries and as a result Japanese companies do not install expensive pollution control measures in the their Asian factories, says scientist Hiroaki Ise, who heads the Japan Acid Rain Monitoring Network.

Even here in Japan, where the authorities have faced up to the fact that the country’s rapid economic growth has come at a high cost to the environment, industrialists are trying to sidestep the government clean-up programme by going into Japan’s less developed areas.

For example, Acid Rain Monitoring Network, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), has initiated major campaign to prevent industrial development in Ibaragi, north-east of Tokyo — one of the last bastions of natural environments in Japan.

Japanese power companies have targeted this mountainous region to build one of the world’s largest coal-fired powered plants because it has laxer environmental standards than those enforced by more developed areas, Ise explained.

No decision has yet been taken on the construction, however, the NGO will be able to make a strong case in view of documented evidence showing that acid rain, or rain contaminated by toxic chemicals, is taking a heavy toll on much of the country’s forests.

Acid rain causes plant nutrients such as calcium and magnesium contained in soil to be leached away. Official estimates show that as much as ten per cent of Japan’s forests have been destroyed or damaged by acid raid.

Surveys conducted during the past few years have indicated a high intensity of nitrogen oxide in the air, generated by automobile exhaust, and sulphur oxide caused by the use of coal fire and diesel fuel.

Japan’s average pH levels — a measure of acidity and alkalinity — range between 4.3 and 5.1, similar to the figures recorded in Western Europe and the United States.

The pollutants, which are released into the air and settle down on the earth after about 10 days, are the result of the rapid construction of roads and factories using coal as a source of energy, explain experts.

Studies conducted in 1993 have also shown a higher level of acid rain on the Sea of Japan which faces China proving a link with China’s increasing industrialisation, according to the Environmental Agency.

A study financed by Japanese companies in 1992 revealed that China was responsible for half of Japan’s acid rain and South Korea for 15 per cent.

As a result Japan is now leading an environmental programme with China and Southeast Asia that is also heavily using coal, by offering financial support and technical cooperation to control the problem.

Japan has already developed sophisticated technology which has managed to reduce waste hazards from factories and Japan’s booming auto industry.

For example Japan’s coal-fired plants have reduced the discharge of sulfur oxides by up to ninety per cent thanks to desulferization devices or sophisticated dust collectors.

Japan is willing to transfer this environmental technology to the rest of Asia — major Chinese coal-fired factories have already been provided with sulphur scrubbers; and Tokyo is now holding talks with Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok on the setting up of acid rain monitoring centres in Malaysia and Thailand.

Japan must, in addition to exporting its technology, also aim at developing solar and wind energy in developing countries as a means of combating pollution such as carbon dioxide and nitrogen dioxide, Ise said.

He also wants the spotlight put on Japanese companies that are moving manufacturing plants into Asia to get around the higher production costs in Japan.

“The government must strive to make these companies accept responsibility for environment problems like acid rain in the host countries,” urged Ise.

Excerpt: