Efforts of Local Government

Local governments which oriented themselves toward rapid economic growth, adopted ordinances to attract businesses, but their advance investments in the business attractions put pressure on local finances and did not necessarily produce what had been expected. In the meantime, environmental pollution occurred, and local governments had to face the criticisms and actions of local people.

Nature of the environmental problems differed depending on the local natural conditions such as geography and meteorology and the social settings such as the developmental stage of the local industry. Initially, problems appeared as local issues that differed from each other. Local governments were the first to cope with this local but to the people living there, very serious issues. They had to solve these issues by themselves before the national government took action.

Because of this, local governments began to adopt pollution control ordinances beginning about 1949. Most of these ordinances, however, simply provided the licensing procedures for discharges that eventually led to water pollution, and they did not address the control the discharges in any quantitative manner. Although it should be noted that local governments took the initiative in administrating against environmental pollution, they could not fully control the pollution and allowed their continuation. By contrast, however, no effective measures were being taken at this time by the national government.

Local governments implemented various innovative measures for pollution control in addition to the adoption of pollution control ordinances. One of these innovations was the agreement on pollution control by Yokohama City in 1964 with the companies that purchased reclaimed land in the industrial estate along the coast in Isogo Ward. Since that time, agreements on pollution control became common in Japan as an important measure for pollution control to supplement regulation by laws and ordinances.

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