The Influence of Local Governments on National Policy‐Setting Processes to Regulate Japan's Vehicle Emissions

Abstract

The national government determines vehicle emission standards in Japan with a bottom-up approach based mainly on a technical perspective, which considers the state of automotive technologies and the cost-benefit trade-offs of regulation. The regulatory result is a gradual change over the long term. Meanwhile, local governments -which must deal directly with citizens rallying against air pollution -demand bold and early regulation of vehicle emissions. Thus, standards eventually set by the national government may not satisfy local governments. To compare the policy decision-making processes of the national and local governments, this paper examines the period 1976-1978, when the national government was strengthening nitrogen oxide emission standards, and the 1990s through the years after 2000, when it strengthened diesel emission standards. Nitrogen oxide regulations in Japan and the world were strict in 1970, but automakers had little incentive to respond proactively to them. Local governments in Japan did not trust the standards set by the national government, which had been determined based on data provided by automakers. Japanese regulatory standards for particulate matter in diesel emissions during the 1990s were weaker than in Europe and North America. With advances being made worldwide on the environmental front, Japanese automakers had less incentive to under-report their state of technological development. Furthermore, because the technology became increasingly specialized, it became more difficult for local governments on their own to evaluate the actual state of technological development. Thus, rather than getting embroiled in debate about the quantitative standards themselves, local governments instead focused on fighting delays in implementation of the standards. Henceforth, the national government will likely play a stronger leading role in the establishment of vehicle emission standards, while the involvement of local governments diminishes even more as the trend moves toward international standards.

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