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The increasing awareness of sustainability issues in industrialized countries has resulted in an unprecedented rise in the number of environmental innovations produced worldwide. However, while this is a general tendency, the amount and importance of environmental innovations is far from consistent across industrialized countries. The influence of countries' policy network styles – referring to which and how interest groups participate in making public policy choices is a dimension that has been subject to growing interest and controversy. We propose that companies from pluralistic countries will generate more environmental innovations, but the importance of environmental innovations will be higher in neo-corporatist countries. Our analysis, based on a longitudinal analysis of 84,274 environmental patents from the United States, Japan, Germany, and the UK during the period 1976–2003, indicates support for our prediction that neo-corporatist countries tend to generate more important environmental innovations than pluralistic countries. Yet, our findings do not support our hypothesis suggesting that pluralistic countries are more likely to generate a higher number of environmental innovations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To develop appropriate recycling industries, EID practices should be based not only on technologies but also on user practices, regulations, infrastructure, and social norms especially policy. The Ministry of Environment, Japan (MOEJ) has attempted to promote the effectiveness of recycling activities in Eco-Towns and improve recycling activity by implementing policies. The aim of this study is to evaluate how to make EID initiatives more effective through the implementation of recycling activities. In particular, we analyzed comparatively the performance improvement effect of implementing recycling boundaries and local and national policies on recycling industries located from 2007 to 2012 in Eco-Towns after the cessation of the Eco-Town program. The SMC blocks policy and the advanced Eco-Town program have played important roles in supporting recycling business after the program. Main results were three points as the analysis on these policies. First, changes in the operating rates varied by the waste type. Second, operating performance had improved slightly in the targeted period. Third, the relationship between the recycling boundary and operational performance is a crucial point, and especially importance of supply side policy, which means recycled product purchase support. The idea of waste supply chain management should be applied to recycling policy and Japanese empirical analysis would be useful for provision of general framework. Maintaining this type of temporal monitoring would be useful to better understand the mechanisms of recycling activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing research on business participation in voluntary environmental programs emphasizes a variety of explanations, including regulatory pressure and incentives, market pressure, self-regulation, and firm size. However, most of this literature focuses on cases from North America and Europe. The contribution of this research is to examine how well this literature applies to a different geographical region and policy context by examining the case of Japan's recent policy mix to reduce emissions of volatile organic compounds following revisions to Japan's Air Pollution Control Law. The scientific and policy significance of this case includes a high level of private sector voluntary participation and a sizable reduction in volatile organic compound emissions (44.1 percent). Moreover, the case is related to the major global air pollution priorities of particulate matter and ozone, since volatile organic compounds are important precursors of these two secondary pollutants. This was also the first case in Japan's environmental policy to use a combination of regulatory and voluntary approaches. This study draws upon records of official policy discussions, data related to relevant industry associations, and other primary source documents to test hypotheses on participation in voluntary programs for two relatively large emitting industries with high emission capture rates in Japan: the chemical and printing industries. The results indicate that explanations for the participation of Japanese firms are largely consistent with arguments based on North American and European cases regarding regulatory pressure and incentives, market pressure, and self-regulation, but only partially consistent regarding the role of firm size. The analysis shows that there were similarities and differences in the factors influencing the participation of the two industries which were partly related to industrial associations and industrial structure. In addition, the results highlight the importance of two points which are less emphasized by existing literature, the business-government bargaining process, and how to maintain the credibility of regulatory threats and avoid regulatory capture. Several policy implications for the design of voluntary approaches are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Under the pressures of rapid industrialization and urbanization, many Asian countries are facing the challenge of reducing air pollution and CO2 emissions simultaneously while maintaining their economic growth. Under such a circumstance, a growing attention is focused on successful implementation of co-benefit policies that are designed to reduce both air pollutants and CO2 emissions. However, the concept of co-benefit policies must be developed further in order to identify its quantitative and qualitative validity, which can be assessed using a reliable methodology for the estimation of co-benefits and through clarification of the importance of this approach for stakeholders in urban environmental policy-making. Based on a systematic review of co-benefit research and air pollution control policies in Japan, we investigated the local air pollution control policy in Kawasaki City, one of the industrial centers of Japan, and confirmed that it has contributed both to the sharp decline of atmospheric sulfur dioxide (SO2) levels and to energy efficiency improvements in local industries. Our results suggest that preventive actions and local-scale compliance enforcement tools (that are uniquely designed and act as a form of agreement between government and individual firms) could contribute significantly to successful implementation of co-benefit policies in the long-term. We conclude our paper with a discussion of linkages between low-carbon technology innovations and policy designs that could further nurture co-benefits. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Taking dioxin emissions from incineration and the recycling of home electric appliances in Japan as two case studies, this paper aims to clarify the impact of environmental policy on technological innovation. For our case studies, relevant Japanese patent data were gathered and analyzed for the period 1990–2008. To demonstrate that environmental regulations induce technology innovation, we conducted statistical analysis to compare the number of patents related to each regulation between the period under regulation and period outside the regulation. The results show that after the regulations were introduced, new technological developments occurred for most technological types and the total number of related patent applications was larger even when controlling for other exogenous and endogenous factors such as business cycles and expenditures in Research and Development (R&D). We finally argue that while a possible weakness in these types of direct regulations is the lack of incentives for further innovations, they can still induce innovation if they are flexible and with specific targets. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]