Survey Shows Japan's Coastal Water Quality Decreasing

In Japan a report released by the Environment Agency showed that the quality of the country's coastal waters in 1997 was the worst it has been in the past 20 years.

A survey, conducted at 7,248 sites nationwide from an environmental standpoint and at 5,549 points from a health standpoint, found that only 74.9% of sites attained the required environmental standards. That is said to represent a decrease of more than 6 percentage points from the figure recorded in the previous year.

Tokyo Bay, Ise Bay and Osaka Bay reportedly had attained 63%, 44% and 75% of environmental standards, respectively, with the rate for Ise Bay at the worst level in 10 years.

The survey, also conducted on rivers and lakes, found the average standards-attainment rate for lakes remained low at 41%, with Teganuma Lake in Chiba Prefecture showing the worst results. The river with the poorest water quality was Kogi River in Osaka Prefecture, with its downstream area exhibiting especially poor water quality, the study showed. The cleanest rivers and lakes appeared to be all in Hokkaido.

As far as compliance with health standards was concerned, the average rate for coastal areas, rivers and lakes met 99.5% of the health standards, which changed minimally from the previous year's 99.3%.