Digging Up a Giant Dark Spot - The Problem of Illegal Dumping of Industrial Waste in Aomori and Iwate and the Background of State Support (February 2004)

Digging Up a Giant Dark Spot - The Problem of Illegal Dumping of Industrial Waste in Aomori and Iwate and the Background of State Support (February 2004)

In Japan in the early 2000s, environmental problems in rural areas were becoming increasingly serious amid the ongoing economic stagnation and structural reforms that followed the collapse of the bubble economy. In particular, illegal dumping of industrial waste had been uncovered one after another across the country since the late 1990s, attracting public attention.

The illegal dumping that came to light in the border area between Aomori and Iwate prefectures is symbolic of this trend: In the early 2000s, large-scale dumping of waste, allegedly involving industrial waste brokers, was confirmed in and around Hachinohe and Ninohe cities, amounting to a whopping 876,000 cubic meters. This is equivalent to the volume of more than 70 Tokyo Domes, and was considered the largest illegal dumping in Japan. The dumped materials may have included toxic heavy metals and chemical substances, and there were concerns about underground water contamination and health hazards to nearby residents.

The response by local governments alone was clearly beyond the limits. Aomori and Iwate prefectures estimated huge removal costs of 41.4 billion yen and 22.1 billion yen, respectively, but these amounts were far beyond what the two prefectures could afford in their financial situations at the time. The Ministry of the Environment therefore decided to provide special financial support at the end of January 2004. The national government provided direct subsidies of 28.7 billion yen, and in addition, local taxation and other measures were taken so that the national government would ultimately bear approximately 60% of the total cost of the project.

Behind this support policy was a shift in environmental administration at the time, following amendments to the Waste Disposal and Public Cleansing Law enacted in 1999 and the Basic Law for Establishing a Sound Material-Cycle Society (2000), which required the government to take "emitter responsibility" and The Aomori and Iwate cases illustrate this trend. The Aomori and Iwate cases served as touchstones for these efforts.

In addition, the strong opposition of local residents and the influence of media reports led the central government to make a political decision that it could not leave the situation as it was. The case spilled over into moves to make industrial waste disposal more transparent, to strengthen management systems, and to increase criminal penalties for illegal dumping.

The long-term effort to restore the site to its original state over a 10-year period served as a model case of environmental restoration through collaboration between local and national governments, but it also highlighted the difficulty of pursuing responsibility for illegal operators and the need for drastic institutional reform. This case was a turning point that made the public aware of the seriousness of "invisible environmental crimes" that had been buried in local communities.