Joint Press Release with the Ministry of the EnvironmentRelease of FY 2011 PRTR Data
Summary of Statistical Results Regarding Released and Transferred Amounts of Chemical Substances

The government has totaled the released and transferred amounts of chemical substances that were notified from 36,638 subject business operators nationwide during FY2011. The result was 174,000 tons for released amounts (4.0% decrease from the previous FY) and 225,000 tons for transferred amounts (14.0% increase from the previous FY), which totals 399,000 tons (5.1% increase from the previous FY).

Release of the continuously confirmed substances* that were successively tabulated from before the amendment to the Act was 157,000 tons (4.0% decrease from the previous FY), which presented a continued decreasing trend.

*Continuously confirmed substances: 276 substances that are successively designated as a subject substance both before and after the revision.

The Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (PRTR) system was introduced pursuant to the Environment and Promotion of Improvements to the Management Thereof (Chemical Substances Management Act) promulgated in July 1999.

Under the PRTR system, every business operator handling any of the Class I Designated Chemical Substances (that are recognized to continuously exist in the environment of a considerably wide area and to pose a risk of being injurious to human health or a risk of impeding the inhabitation or growth of animals and plants) is required to notify the government of the amount of such chemical substances released into the environment and the amount transferred as waste. The government must publish a tabulation of the notified data along with estimates of released amounts other than those notified.

In accordance with the revision by the cabinet order in November 2008, the PRTR system under the Chemical Substances Management Act was amended to be applicable, from the notification in FY 2010, to 462 substances rather than 354 previously stipulated substances. It was also changed to cover the medical industry, and the number of industries managed under the Act increased to 24.

Jointly with MOE, METI totaled the above released amounts, estimated and calculated the released amounts other than those notified, and compiled the results.

The compiled data and the data for individual business operators are available on the METI website as of today (February 28).

Documents pertinent to the compiled PRTR data are available on the following websites:

Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry

http://www.meti.go.jp/policy/chemical_management/law/index.html (in Japanese)

Ministry of the Environment

http://www.env.go.jp/chemi/prtr/risk0.html (in Japanese)

[Reference] List of posted materials

• Press release (METI) (this document), Appendix 1(PDF:783KB) and Appendix 2(PDF:1,242KB) *(in Japanese)

  * Summary of notification situations from business operators, tabulation of released and transferred amounts by industry and by prefecture, estimated released amounts other than those notified etc. as well as data comparing the result of this fiscal year with the result of the previous fiscal year.

• Data sheets
  4,560 data sheets compiled pursuant to the "Ministerial Ordinance for Defining the Methods, etc. of Aggregating Notified Data Concerning the Released Quantity, etc. of Class I Designated Chemical Substances" (issued jointly by METI and MOE), including data broken down by chemical substance, by prefecture, by industry (46 industries), and size of business operators (based on the number of employees in a company).

  The above data sheets are provided in pdf or csv formatted files on the websites

• Outline of the PRTR data
  Summary of notification situations from business operators, total of notified released/transferred amounts broken down by industry and prefecture and estimates of released amounts other than those notified

• Outline of the method of estimating the release amounts other than those notified under the PRTR system

  Reference material describing the method used for estimating released amounts other than those notified and the data used for the estimations

• Individual business operator data
  Business-operator-based PRTR data for FY 2011 and the preceding years (FY 2001-2010)

The business operator-based PRTR data are disclosed by conventional methods where disclosure is made upon request, in addition to its released on the website. (Note that the data disclosed upon request is the same as the data on the website.)

An administrative fee will be charged for the request. For details, refer to the website below:
http://www.meti.go.jp/policy/chemical_management/law/prtr/7.html

The National Institute of Technology and Evaluation (referred to as NITE hereafter) conducted a survey on efforts and measures to reduce chemical substance release through questionnaires and interviews of the business operators which most stood out with their drastic reduction of release among all of those which had submitted PRTR notification. Based on the survey results, NITE has compiled the "Case Studies on Measures to Reduce the Release of Chemical Substances."

We presume that business operators are taking actions toward promoting the self-management of chemical substances in response to PRTR data notification, and we hope that these case studies will be utilized as a good point of reference for future management measures on chemical substances.

Details for the case studies are available on the NITE website below as of February 28:
http://www.prtr.nite.go.jp/data/other_prtr2.html

February 28, 2013

Chemical Management Policy Division, Manufacturing Industries Bureau