New System for Contaminated Soil Remediation: The October 2001 "Interim Report" and Beyond

New System for Contaminated Soil Remediation: The October 2001 "Interim Report" and Beyond

In 2001, the Ministry of the Environment released an interim report on a new system for soil contamination countermeasures. The aim of the system was to promote the understanding of contamination, risk reduction, and prevention in an integrated manner in order to protect human health. The abolition or change of use of a business site triggers an investigation, and the land where contamination has been confirmed is managed by the prefectural government in a ledger. The report was submitted for public comment. The report was submitted for public comment, and the Central Environment Council discussed its institutionalization.

However, there were many issues in the design of the system, and the business community and legal organizations voiced their opinions one after another regarding the huge cost of the cleanup and where the responsibility lies. The Japan Federation of Economic Organizations (Keidanren) called for limiting the triggers for investigation to cases of abolition or change of use and for consideration of the realistic burden of costs, while the Japan Federation of Bar Associations (JFBA) proposed clarifying the principle of the causer's burden and strengthening the disclosure of information. The focus was on how to ensure fairness and effectiveness.

This trend culminated in the enactment of the Soil Contamination Countermeasures Law in 2002, which came into effect in 2003. The law designates "areas requiring action" and "areas requiring notification at the time of landform alteration" from the viewpoint of health risk, and institutionalizes investigation, measures, and information management. The background to this was the development of urban redevelopment in the 1990s and the emergence of soil contamination as a risk in land transactions and financing. The system contributed to the visualization of brownfields and the promotion of redevelopment, and marked a turning point in Japan's environmental administration. The 2001 interim report was thus an important step that laid the foundation for later legislation.