Subject: [cwj 19] Police grill exporter of industrial waste to Philippines
From: Corporate Watch in Japanese <cwj@corpwatch.org>
Date: Thu, 18 May 2000 18:07:47 -0700
Seq: 19
4 articles on toxic exports from Japan to Philippines, including an article about the suicide of one of the related company's president Police grill exporter of industrial waste to Philippines - UTSUNOMIYA, Japan, May 16 2000 Police on Tuesday started questioning the president of Nisso Ltd., a now-bankrupt industrial-waste disposal company in Oyama, Tochigi Prefecture, on suspicion of illegally exporting toxic waste to the Philippines last year. Police said Hiromi Ito, 50, was arrested in Niigata on Monday night and taken to the Oyama Police Station, where Tochigi and Nagano prefectural police have jointly set up a squad to investigate the case. Arrest warrant issued for exporter of waste to Philippines - UTSUNOMIYA, Japan, May 10 2000 Police obtained an arrest warrant Wednesday for the president of Nisso Ltd., an industrial-waste disposal company in Oyama, Tochigi Prefecture, on suspicion of illegally exporting toxic waste to the Philippines last year, police said. Hiromi Ito, 50, who remains at large, is suspected of exporting about 2,160 tons of industrial waste, including hazardous medical waste, to the Philippines in July and October last year, police said. BACKGROUND- January 12 2000 Editorial JAPAN: PHILIPPINES CASE BARES INADEQUACY OF WASTE RULES The Yomiuri Shimbun TOKYO, Japan, 12 January 2000 -- The illegal export of hazardous waste by a Japanese company to the Philippines can only be termed a disgraceful international environmental crime. About 2,700 tons of Japanese garbage in 122 containers was shipped back to Japan on Monday and unloaded Tuesday. The export of the garbage violates the Basel Convention that regulates cross-border transportation of hazardous waste and its disposal. Because, under the convention, an exporting country is responsible for the collection of such waste, the Japanese government chartered a ship for the return of the garbage from the Philippines. The "forced repatriation" of waste was a duty that brings shame upon Japan as a member of the international community. Much of the garbage is infectious and toxic medical waste. Nisso Ltd., an industrial waste-processing company in Tochigi Prefecture, exported the items under the description "waste paper for recycling." The exposure was the first in Japan of large-scale dumping of waste in contravention of international law, but it is doubtful that this is just a one-off isolated incident. It is almost certain that there are other cases in which waste is exported to developing countries with less restrictive regulations under the guise of "resource exports" for recycling. The illegal practice appears to be well established. Leave no stone unturned in investigation Investigative and administrative authorities have a duty to expose the entire process, from start to finish, by which the returned waste turned up in the Philippines, from the firms that produced it to the one that processed it and the Philippine company that imported it. The system with a flaw that allowed the waste to be illegally exported should be reexamined. The current controversy illustrates the seriousness of the waste-disposal problem in Japan. The industrial waste-processing company in question had earlier been found responsible for the illegal dumping of about 8,000 tons of waste in Ibaraki Prefecture, Nagano Prefecture and elsewhere. The company might have stepped up illegal dumping after being forced to shut down incinerators that it failed to upgrade to meet tightened standards for dioxin emissions that were introduced in late December of 1998. It seems that the latest case has revealed a vicious circle in which tighter rules encouraged more illegal dumping, and, in turn, more tightening of controls to follow. One of the offshoots was the illegal exportation to the Philippines. Tackle the problem at its source To break the circle, we must clarify and expand the responsibility of waste producers, thereby tackling the problem at its source. This issue is addressed in a bill for the revision of the Wastes Disposal Law due to be submitted during the next ordinary Diet session. But the current law already stipulates responsibility of waste producers. They are required to record details of waste in a manifesto, hand it to a waste-disposal company and confirm how disposal was made. The reality of the situation is, however, that waste producers consider their responsibility to be at an end at the second the waste is handed over to the disposal firm. Rampant falsification of manifestos enables them to get away with it, making the system of record-keeping null and void. The revision bill would make it mandatory for waste producers to verify correct disposal in line with details recorded on manifestos. The producer knows best about the content and composition of its waste and should be made duty-bound to see its disposal through to the end. The revision bill also seeks to lay a level of responsibility with waste producers for the recovery of waste found to have been dumped illegally or improperly disposed of in other ways. This burden must be distributed fairly. It costs several hundreds of millions of yen to dispose of waste shipped back to Japan. The cost will be borne by the Environment Agency, Health and Welfare and International Trade and Industry ministries instead of the waste-disposal company. Despite the extent of the disgrace, we must seize the opportunity presented by the latest illegal exportation case to formulate a new waste-disposal policy. WASTE COMPANY BOSS SUICIDES WITH POISON Mainichi Daily News NIIGATA, Japan, 23 January 2000 -- The president of an industrial-waste disposal company that does business with Nisso Ltd., which allegedly exported hazardous waste to the Philippines last year, has killed himself in Niigata Prefecture, police said Saturday. Police suspect Daisuke Kikuchi, 49, president of the Ichinoseki, Iwate Prefecture-based company, swallowed insecticide to kill himself. Kikuchi's firm was being investigated on suspicion of burying plastics in its disposal site in Ichinoseki without permission. ______________________ The Corporate Watch in Japanese http://www.corpwatch.org/japan (CWJ) mailing list is a moderated email list in English designed to connect activists campaigning against Japanese corporations and investments around the world. * To unsubscribe from the CWJ mailing list, send an email to majordomo@jca.apc.org with text "unsubscribe cwj". To subscribe to the CWJ mailing list, send a message to majordomo@jca.apc.org with the text "subscribe cwj" * The CWJ mailing list is NOT intended for wide distribution. If you would like to post messages from this list somewhere else, we ask that you first contact us at cwj@corpwatch.org ______________________