The Committee of Seto-uchi
Establishment:
The Japanese Inland Sea (Seto-uchi), surrounded by the main islands of Honshu,
Shikoku and Kyushu, stretches 450 km from east to west and an average of
55 km from north to south, covers an area of 22,000 km2, has a coastline
extending for 6,000 km, an average depth of 37 m, and contains 800 billion
cubic meters of water. It is studded with some 840 islands, and there are
many traits, areas of open sea and bays. The annual average temperature
is 15oC, the rainfall 1,000 – 1,500 mm, and the area is richly blessed by
nature. More than 4,300 kinds of biological species have been confirmed.
With its varied and beautiful scenery, Seto-uchi is often called Mediterranean
of the Orient, and almost all of the central part was designated as Japanfs
first National Park in 1923.
From about 1960 Japanfs development centered chiefly on heavy chemical
industry, with several petrochemical complexes being located along the Inland
Seafs coast line in places such as Tokuyama, Iwakuni, Mizushima, Niihama,
etc. Comprehensive steel plants were established in Sakai, Kobe, Himeji,
Kurashiki, Fukuyama and Oita, while shipbuilding, electric power generation
and vehicle production also increased rapidly. In 1972, 53% of steal production,
40% of oil refining, 35% of petrochemicals and 42% of electric power generation
for the whole of Japan were concentrated along the coast of Seto-uchi.
The white sand and green pine trees along the coast disappeared as land
was reclaimed in one place after another. From 1949 to 1969 the area of
reclamation was 163 km2, reaching 1.6 times that of the previous 50 years.
Seaweed-growing areas and tidal foreshore became extremely poor.
As Seto-uchi is surrounded by high mountains on Shikoku and Honshu the
air tends to remain stagnant, and the area soon became one of the most air-polluted
in the country due to the fumes and smoke from factories and cities. It
was similar story in the case of sea-pollution, since Seto-uchi is so closed.
Damage from red tides began to increase from about 1965. In 1972, red tides
in Harima-nada killed some 14 million yellowtail, amounting to around 7.1
billion yen on the fishery industry. In 1976 alone, 326 red tides occurred
in Seto-uchi. Also, the water in Tokuyama Bay was found to be polluted by
mercury, while Osaka Bay, Harima-nada, Iwakuni, Beppu Bay gave PCB water
pollution.
Citizens demonstrated against the building an oil-refinery in 1966,
after which they repeated their movements against landfilling and against
the setting up of further industries. A lawsuit filed in 1970 in Usuki City
against an industrial land reclamation plan resulted in victory. Also, a
series of legal actions against landfilling were brought and citizens throughout
the region were standing together to fight for their rights in the administration
of justice.
Scientists in the area began holding an annual symposium from 1972, and simultaneously
the JSA committee of Seto-uchi was established to make known their views
on how to preserve the environment in Seto-uchi. Since then the symposium
is called Seto-uchi Symposium (shown below), for which both the JSA committee
of Seto-uchi and the peoplesf alliance for protecting Seto-uchifs environment
have basically been responsible. The former analyzes all the situation and
proposes the strategy for its realization, while the latter organizes different
citizensf movement. Therefore both the organizations have been quite cooperative.
Activities:
Heading the voices of scientists and the local citizens, the central government
began to take action to protect Seto-uchi. Seto-uchi Environment Conservation
Temporal Measures Law was passed in 1973, which is somewhat effective in
delaying further pollution in Seto-uchi. The movements to urge the government
to stop the reclamation projects to recover the environment had been strongly
carried out across the country. Consequently, Seto-uchi Environment Conservation
Special Measure Law was passed in 1978, providing further possibility to
protect the Seto-uchifs environment in combination with the related laws.
In the symposia in the 1980s, discussed were a number of proposals to
overcome the destroyed environment, e.g. reclamation (#10), revision of the
Seto-uchi law for aiming at more sustainable development (#11), water problems
(#12), and local problems (techopolis #13, Shikoku and Chugoku problems #14-16,
evacuation of industries #17). From the 1990s, they have discussed the way
of sustainable development that was stimulated by the Rio Summit of Sustainable
Development in 1992. Namely, citizens were interested in how we could realize
sustainable development in Seto-uchi, and they therefore visited and investigated
a number of sustainable spots, e.g. formers, industries, and social workers.
Setou-chi Symposium:
No Theme Year Place
1 Development and pollution in Seto-uchi 1972 Takamatsu
2 ditto 1973 Yamaguchi
3 ditto 1974 Hiroshima
4 ditto 1975 Kobe
5 Combinat's disaster and environement 1975 Okayama
6 Reclamation and local society 1977 Oita
7 Resuscitation of Seto-uchi by citizens 1978 Matsuyama
8 Seto-uchifs development and citizens' life 1979 Takamatsu
9 Democratic development of Seto-uchi 1980 Yamaguchi
10 Seto-uchi and Osaka Bay 1981 Osaka
11 Resuscitation of Seto-uchi 1982 Hiroshima
12 ditto 1983 Okayama
13 ditto 1984 Oita
14 Creation of Seto-uchifs environment 1985 Matsuyama
15 Nature and culture in Seto-uchi 1986 Osaka
16 Towards Seto-uchifs rehabilitation 1987 Sakaide
17 ditto 1989 Yamaguchi
18 Seto-uchi in the 21st century 1990 Hiroshima
19 ditto 1992 Oita
20 ditto 1993 Okayama
21 ditto (Re-examination of Seto-uchi) 1995 Matsuyama
22 ditto (Role of Seto-uchi Law for 25 years) 1997
Osaka
23 ditto 1998 Takamatsu
24 ditto 2000 Oita
25 Preservation and of resuscitation of Seto-uchi 2002 Yamaguchi