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JAPAN: TRASH ARREST NEAR

Asahi Shimbun

TOKYO, Japan, 19 January 2000 -- Police plan to arrest the president of an industrial waste disposal company that is suspected of having illegally exported medical waste and unrecyclable trash to the Philippines, sources said today.

Police, who are searching the transport containers of the waste that were sent back last week, will seek charges of unauthorized exports against Hiromi Ito, president of Nisso Ltd., based in Oyama, Tochigi Prefecture. He is suspected of violating the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Control Law.

About 50 investigators from the Tochigi and Nagano prefectural police offices this morning searched for evidence at a waste disposal facility in Tokyo's Ota Ward, where the exported trash is stored. It was sent back from Manila on Jan. 11.

Ito allegedly exported about 2,700 tons of trash, including dangerous waste materials from medical institutions, last year without obtaining approval by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry. The company had falsely reported that the garbage was used paper.

Authorities have been searching for Ito, who is also on the wanted list of the Nagano prefectural police for suspected violations of the Wastes Disposal and Public Cleaning Law in a separate case.

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