Aggravation of natural environmental problems and global environmental problems

In Japan, environmental management has been conducted mostly under the framework of the Basic Law for Environmental Pollution Control. This approach has had considerable success in reducing pollution. At present, however, driven by social and economic activities based on mass production, mass consumption and mass disposal, urban public nuisances and household pollution problems and global environmental problems have become more serious. Conventional approaches based on the command-and-control mechanism have not been sufficient to cope with these problems. This made it necessary to enact the Environment Basic Law in 1993. This law provided the philosophy for environmental policies, the direction for basic actions, and the genera1 framework for environmental policy developments.

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