JAPAN-ENVIRONMENT: Industry Seeks to Clean up its Act and Image

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Jul 4 1996 (IPS) - In Japan image means a lot, and there are signs thr knocking the industrial sector has received in recent years from an increasingly environmental conscious Japanese public, is resulting in some companies cleaning up their act.

The auto-making sector and the manufacturing industry as a whole has literally been put in the dock by citizens’ groups claiming their health has been adversely affected by air and water pollution.

And earlier this year, the international environmental group Greenpeace labeled Japan the second worst offender after the United States, when it comes to production of ozone depleting substances.

In a report titled “Whose Chlorine is it?”, Greenpeace estimates that Japanese industry and household energy consumption are responsible for 13 per cent of ozone depleting substances that include chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).

CFCs — a combination of chlorine, fluorine and carbon — can be used as propellants for aerosols, as cooling agents and in the manufacture of polystyrene foam that cause irreparable damage to the thin layer of ozone that surrounds the planet.

The government, itself stung by the criticisms, has been moving to enact tougher legislation to lower pollution rates.

“Four years after the June 1992 earth Summit in Rio, we are entering a stage where action is needed, rather than discussions of environmental ethics,” Takashi Kosugi, a leading politician recently told the a special government panel on the issue.

But up to now, the introduction of new laws has been delayed by an industrial lobby which says it will not be able to compete internationally if too strict laws are in place. The industrial sector often cites the cost factor involved in introducing new technology that would be less damaging to the environment.

But experts in environment friendly technology, say that some companies have begun to see the wisdom in such an investment, largely because a clean image can provide a marketing edge.

“Japanese companies are beginning to realise the importance of environmental costs for their own economic development,” explained Shouchan Asuka-Zhang, a senior engineer in the Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry.

Domestic sales of environmental equipment reached a record 1.4 trillion yen fiscal 1994, according to experts in the field who provide sales statistics to government agencies.

“Up to now, the focus has been on treating pollution. But now Japanese companies are setting their eyes on the development of technology that results in zero emissions,” notes Ryutaka Chissaka, spokesman for Ebara Corp, a leading company in the manufacture of environment-friendly equipment.

Besides combating air pollution, the government is also pre- occupied with industrial waste, particularly as local councils in and outside Tokyo are coming under increasing pressure from citizens’ groups protesting the setting up of disposal plants in their residential areas.

To this end, Tokyo has earmarked 48.1 billion dollars on a new five-year waste-treatment improvement plan. The government is also encouraging private agencies like Ebara Corp. to develop environment friendly technology.

But Tokyo says the effort must be a regional one, with the Environment Agency for example, pinning some of the blame of Japan’s pollution problems on neighbouring China.

According to the Environment Agency, recent studies have shown that China’s industrial sector emits 20 million tons of sulfur a year — 20 times that of Japan — and that a huge amount of these emissions come over to Japan in the form of acid rain, destroying local forests and hastening the greenhouse process.

In the 1950s and 1960s, during the heady days of Japan’s economic expansion, sulphur dioxide was a major pollutant in emissions released by coal-fired production plants and vehicles.

Today, 80 per cent of Japan’s factories and boilers are equipped with the environmental protection technology which has reduced the deadly emissions, according to the Environment Agency.

However, experts point out that the new private enterprises in fast developing Asia, are unable to afford the technology now used by some Japanese companies.

As such, some environmental campaigners say that if rich Japan is serious about improving its image, it should share its technology rather than try to sell it.

“Rich corporations carry the responsibility of setting environmental standards in developing countries where they set-up plants and factories,” says Richard Forrest, of the National Wildlife Federation.