Kids Web Japan

Q. What efforts are being made to make the air cleaner?

A.

Japan enacted the Air Pollution Control Law in 1968 to halt the contamination of the atmosphere that was being caused by industrial development. Efforts are continuing to regulate exhaust emissions from automobiles, introduce low-pollution vehicles that run on methanol, control the amount of nitrogen oxide emitted by the diesel engines of trucks and buses, and develop devices that remove dust and sulfur from smoke emitted by factories.

In recent years a great deal of attention has been paid to global environmental issues. Japan is actively cooperating with other members of the international community to resolve these issues. For example, when chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) were found to be destroying the earth's ozone layer and causing global warming, Japan swiftly enacted the Ozone-Layer Protection Law in 1988. In 1995 the world's developed nations, including Japan, ceased production of CFCs, and since then alternative CFCs (including HFC and HCFC) have been used. These alternative CFCs are to be phased out by 2020.

Photo courtesy of Ministry of Foreign Affairs.