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Environment in Japan Fact sheet released by the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs U.S. Department of State, June 26, 2000

Modern Japan has proven to be one of the most resource-efficient countries in the world. A population of over 125 million people occupies only 145,856 square miles of land, an area smaller than the state of California.

Japan possesses no significant energy or mineral deposits. It imports virtually all of its energy supplies, primarily from the Middle East, and is one of the most efficient users of energy among the world's advanced industrial nations. However, Japan, like other industrial nations, is a major generator of greenhouse gases which contribute to climate change and ozone layer depletion.

Most of Japan is mountainous and thus not suitable for agriculture or commercial forestry. Thus Japan, as the world's largest importer of timber, buys from companies that harvest in Southeast Asia and as far away as Central America. Overfishing of many local commercial species and increasing levels of coastal marine pollution have forced Japan's fishing fleet, the largest in the world, far afield in search of food. There is widespread international concern about Japan's policy of lethal scientific whaling.

The rapid industrialization and economic development of Japan during the 1950s and 1960s was accompanied by severe air pollution and marine degradation. Several environmental disasters, such as the outbreak of Minamata disease, caused by chemical offshore dumping, resulted in public outrage. In response, the parliament created the National Environment Agency in 1970. The National Environment Agency will be upgraded to ministry status at the start of calendar year 2001, taking on some additional responsibilities currently resident with the Ministry of Health and Welfare. Japan now has some of the strictest environmental regulations of any industrialized nation, and the quality of Japan's environment has improved in recent decades. Public interest in the environment in Japan has increased significantly in recent years.

Each year, Japan provides much support to environmental protection projects around the world through its international aid programs and non-governmental organizations. As demonstrated by its role as host of the December 1997 Conference on Global Climate Change in Kyoto, Japan plays a lead role in the area of climate change and cooperates closely with the U.S. on a number of broader environmental issues. Under the Common Agenda Framework, established in 1993, the United States and Japan formed the "Environmental Policy Dialogue," a forum for regular consultation on global environmental issues such as: biosafety; forestry; climate change; coral reefs; and endangered species. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Japanese National Environment Agency also consult regularly through a variety of mechanisms.

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