JAPAN: Residents Step Up Battle for Cleaner Air

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Aug 23 1997 (IPS) - Yuki Natsume, 44, never had asthma until she started living in Tokyo more than a decade ago.

“My problems began after my husband and I started living near the expressway. Air pollution ruined my health,” she complained.

She has learned to live with her illness, but hides it from her superior at work because “I fear my frequent bouts with asthma will be a reason for my boss to tell me to leave”.

Natsume is among the growing list of asthma sufferers in bustling Tokyo, where living near congested roads and expressways that criss-cross the Japanese capital is a way of life for its 12 million people.

Government estimates put the number of asthma sufferers at some 70,000, but non-governmental organisations say their surveys show the figure is more like 500,000 to 600,000.

“The numbers are increasing despite official reports that publicise cleaner air in Tokyo,” said Shintaro Koike, head of the Research Institute on Industrial Pollution, a grassroots group composed of pollution victims, activists and academics.

In the sixties and seventies, which were the heady days of the country’s industrial takeoff, the skies over Tokyo and nearby suburbs were constantly covered by a haze of smog and dust.

Today’s skies are almost a clear power blue in comparison to those days. But, as Koike and even government officials reluctantly acknowledge, air pollution remains a nagging problem and Tokyo has yet to deal with its root cause owing to policies that emphasise industrial growth over environmental protection.

In a bid to reverse the situation, desperate Tokyo residents have been taking the government and guilty companies to court — and winning some of them.

In December, plaintiffs in the “Kawasaki asthma” case — which refers to an industrial suburb in Japan — won a court- negotiated settement with 14 polluting companies after a 14-year- old legal battle.

The defendant companies, considered the engines that powered Japan’s economic miracle in the sixties, agreed to pay 3.1 billion yen (27 million U.S. dollars) to 401 plaintiffs in Kawasaki, a site for heavy industries.

In another struggle in the battle for a better environment, more than 200 asthma sufferers in Tokyo are currently fighting Japanese construction companies and the government, seeking to pin responsibility for their illness on them and to get compensation from them.

“Under economic development, the health and well-being of the individual has been ignored,” explained Koike, whose group supports the lawsuit.

Exerts say Tokyo faces a host of pollution problems though these have been dramatically reduced in the last three decades, after the government took steps like controlling emissions from factories and improving sewage and waste disposal systems.

In a 1992 study of urban air pollution, the United Nations Environment Programme called Tokyo a “recognised example of how air pollution in an industrial megacity can be controlled”.

Indeed, levels of pollutants like suspended particulates, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide are much lower than Asia’s most polluted cities.

But Tokyo has a problem with ozone concentrations which UNEP finds “high” in the Japanese capital. The UNEP study says links between ozone exposure and adverse respiratory health effects.

Some critics say the Japanese government has yet to come down hard enough on industries and force them to clean up production processes and cut back on harmful emissions and pollution.

Theyargue that Japan has been slow to set the pace even in current environmental issues, such as in global negotiations on the reduction of harmful greenhouse gases that fuel global warming. In December, Kyoto, Japan will play host to a meeting of parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Among the major greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide, of which Japan emitted a record 332 million tons in 1995. The Environment Agency of Japan says this is up 8.3 percent from the country’s 1990 level, although developed nations are supposed to be cutting greenhouse emissions.

Japan produces the most carbon dioxide after the United States. Manufacturing and construction are blamed for 37 percent of the total emissions, 20 percent from transportation, and 28 percent from househlds, agriculture, forestry and fisheries.

But activists say the government remains soft on industries and business, which would hurt from stiff targets for cutting back greenhouse emissions.

A proposed environment tax, supported by the Environment Agency and non-governmental organisations, has yet to be imposed due mainly to opposition from powerful companies and the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, which is concerned about Japan’s industrial competitiveness.

Experts have said that if a carbon tax of 3,000 yen (26 dollars) per ton of carbon were imposed, Japan would have at least a trillion yen per year to invest in the development of technology for reducing carbon dioxide emissions in 2010.

Environmentalists say Japanese industry is the reason for the government’s siding with the United States in opposing a European Union proposal for a 15 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emisions by 2000.

They argue that developed nations have a bigger responsibility to clean the air because they are responsible for producing most greenhouse gases. But Yoshiaki Tanabe, Japan’s ambassador for global environmental affairs said last month: “It is simply impossible for Japan to reduce its emissions by 15 percent.”

Tomoko Sakuma, director of an environmental NGO called Forum 2001, says Japan must fulfill its international obligations at Kyoto, which will be a “landmark in the environment movement”.

“If the government turns its back on this target (15 percent reduction) its going to be very disappointing for everybody,” he said.