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They say the government is taking the easy way out of Japan's dilemma on waste disposal, by turning a blind eye to the growing exports of toxic garbage to countries where laws are more lax.

"Developing countries are now becoming an attractive dumping ground for Japanese companies that face a waste disposal problem in Japan," said lawyer Nobuo Kojima, who works with environment groups.

According to customs figures compiled at the finance ministry, Japan exported 91,137 tons of scrap plastic and 21,430 tons of aluminum waste last year to Hong Kong, China and Taiwan.

In addition, large shipments of old tires and millions of used cars are exported from Japan each year to developing countries.

Activists say the disposal of many of these items requires much care to ensure that they do not become environmental pollutants.

In March, authorities closed in on a local refinery that for eight years had been illegally exporting aluminum residue to North Korea. The residue emits toxic gases such as ammonia chlorine and hydrogen sulfide when mixed with water.

Company officials said the residue was being used as additive at steel mills or in the manufacture of water purifiers. However, they also claimed that exporting the waste product was an emergency measure due to limits on recycling waste in Japan.

But the stringent limits to the disposal of toxic and harmful waste at home are not quite enough for many Japanese, who complain of harmful wastes dumped around residential areas.

In recent months, virtually every industrial waste site in Japan has come under fire from residents of nearby communities, amid anxiety over pollution from industrial and household waste.

Such worries were not unfounded. Just this June, a business report revealed that in 1996 alone, more than 6,600 tons of cancer-causing substances were discharged into the environment by 1,585 companies.

Following mounting criticism and reports of fatal illnesses linked with environmental pollution, the government has revised and enacted laws enforcing new guidelines that call for better management and restrictions on toxic garbage disposal.

In June, the Health and Welfare Ministry enforced a regulation requiring operators of 10,000 waste incinerators and 3,800 dumping sites to disclose environment-related data to nearby residents upon request.

But such rules not only make industrial waste disposal at local sites tied to more paperwork and company monitoring, they have also meant that building new dumpsites will be expensive and time-consuming.

As a result, say environmentalists, developing countries with lax conservation rules and cheap labor have become more attractive to Japanese companies that are on the lookout for places where they can dispose their trash.

According to the environment agency, garbage exports are not illegal as long as the material can be used again in those countries.

Industrial waste exporters also say their way is the cheaper and "safer" alternative for Japan.

But critics point out this dumps on the recipient countries the burden of looking for "safe" means of disposal, which they may not be able to afford or may not be keen on looking for.

Lawyer Kojima is currently lobbying Japanese shipbuilders to take a more responsible approach when scrapping old single-hull tankers in South-east Asia.

Japan was the largest shipbuilder in the world for many decades until the 1980s. Kojima says Japanese ships contain hazardous materials like asbestos, oil and toxic organic tin, which is used as an anti-corrosive. All these, he says, are dumped into the sea during the scrapping process.

The local companies sell the scrap metal as recycled steel. Noriyuki Hiwada, who works with Kojima, says Japanese companies and their local counterparts take advantage of the lack of stringent environmental laws in most of Asia.

Workers are often not provided protective gear, including gloves, which exposes them not only to injury but to diseases such as cancer and serious respiratory ailments. Cheap labor in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh has made these countries the most popular sites for getting rid of old ships.

Ship-breaking in India has provoked protests from groups like Greenpeace, which want "toxic ships" included in the list of waste that cannot be exported under the Basel Convention.

Many of the toxic wastes aboard the vessels, like asbestos and lead, are covered by the Basel ban, but the export of the ships themselves are not.

Lately, Japanese shipbuilding firms have added the Philippines and Vietnam to their list of disposal sites. Shipbuilding industry insider Shinichiro Otsubo says the two countries have requirements -- a lot of labor and wide space -- that the business of scrapping tankers needs.

"The process is also important for environment protection because we are getting rid of old ships and thus lessening accidents that cause ocean pollution," explains Otsubo.

The Transport Ministry reports that 650,000 tons were discarded in Vietnam and 380,000 tons in the Philippines by Japanese companies between 1993 and 1997.

Otsubo argues that while Japanese companies may have manufactured and used the ships, the responsibility of discarding should lie with the current owner.

But Kojima retorts that Japanese companies should accept the concept of manufacturer's responsibility. This would force the firms to pay for eventual disposal of products they made, even if this takes place in developing countries.

"Japan is a rich country and can afford to pay for environment protection," he says. "It is important that Japanese companies seriously consider the environmental costs of their products in the future."

Copyright 1998 PA News.