Environmental Issues in China: An Overview from Japan

Abstract

This chapter presents a brief review of the history of economic development and environmental issues in China. After economic reform and opening up policies adopted in 1979, China achieved remarkable economic growth while it was associated with expanding consumption of natural resources and emissions of air and water pollutants. China and Japan are neighbor countries, having a long history of cultural exchange and trade. After the end of Second World War, however, the diplomatic relation between the two countries was disconnected, and it began to normalize only in 1972. Cooperation in the environmental sector was developed as one of the pillars of official development assistance from Japan to China, especially in the 1990s. In the 2000s, however, the environmental cooperation between them cooled down due to economic stagnation in Japan and increased political tension caused by territorial issues.