AEMS: AEMS Database

Japan gained material wealth after rapid economic growth which lifted the people's living standards. Especially in cities, mass production and consumption led to generation of massive volumes of waste. Japan first handled its waste by burying it in the mountains or using it to reclaim lands offshore. However, this method soon reached its limitations. Industrial waste produced from factories and construction sites had nowhere to go except to less populated countryside and remote islands. These became waste mountains causing much pollution. By the time illegal dumping was exposed, so much waste had accumulated. Garbage pollution is difficult to tackle because it comes from numerous sources both domestic and industrial. Victims and victimizer are not visible to each other, which makes the situation more complex and hard to resolve.

This film features Japanese citizens who questioned their waste legislation and voluntarily started recycling campaign. It recalls the challenges that Nagoya city faced when it withdrew a new reclamation plan, and looks at a typical illegal dumping site in Teshima island, Kagawa prefecture.

Japan's waste problems are far from over. The film ends with the key question: How can production and consumption minimise waste generation in the future?