Kamiiso Town, Hokkaido, "Special Zone for Recycling and Circulation Industry" and its historical background around 2003

Kamiiso Town, Hokkaido, "Special Zone for Recycling and Circulation Industry" and its historical background around 2003

In the early 2000s, under the Koizumi Cabinet, Japan institutionalized "special zones for structural reform," in which regulations were eased to suit local conditions, and efforts to foster new industries and revitalize local communities were explored in various regions. The town of Kamiiso in Hokkaido proposed a "special zone for recycling and circulation industry. This was an attempt to establish a community-based waste circulation system and demonstrate a model for reusing waste as a resource at the local level.

The focus of the proposal for the special zone was to deregulate the Waste Disposal and Public Cleansing Law. In the past, general waste and industrial waste were separated and required separate facility permits, but Kamiiso Town sought to "rationalize facility permits according to the nature of the waste" and envisioned a system whereby any facility with either permit would be able to accept the waste. This was an attempt to reduce institutional friction that hinders resource circulation in the region and to build an effective circulation system.

At the time, the Basic Law for Establishing a Sound Material-Cycle Society (enacted in 2000) was in full swing, and there were nationwide calls for waste reduction and resource recycling. With the Kyoto Protocol about to take effect, environmental policy as a whole was shifting its emphasis to greenhouse gas reduction and resource recycling, and Kamiiso Town's proposal anticipated the demands of the times.

Later, in 2006, Kamiiso merged with Ono Town to form Hokuto City, but the idea of forming a recycling-oriented society was carried over, and the city formulated a regional plan to promote the formation of a regional recycling-oriented society and advanced separation and recycling of resources, and promoted citizen participation. The special zone concept in Kamiiso is an example that symbolizes Japan's progress toward a resource-recycling society as a "testing ground" through deregulation initiated by the region.