METI to Relax Regulations on Factory Production Area and Green Area Ratios

Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry will revise its ministerial ordinances and relevant restrictions under the Factory Location Law in March 2004. This revision is to relax regulations on the size of production facilities and green areas set aside at a given factory site. Specifically, municipalities will be given the power to set the required proportion of green area at factories in their jurisdictions to between 10 and 30 percent (10 percent above or below the central government's base ratio of 20 percent). Greenery on rooftops and walls will be counted in the total green area, as part of a newly extended definition.

The Factory Location Law, enacted in 1973, requires companies to limit production facility size to less than a certain ratio of the total area and to set aside green zones on the factory site, in order to prevent environmental pollution and disasters. Factories with lot sizes of more than 9,000 square meters or a total building area of more than 3,000 square meters are subject to the law. Thanks in part to the regulations, the green-area ratio rose to 15 percent in 2002 from 5.8 percent in 1973.

The law was revised in 1997 in response to the advances in pollution prevention technologies and increasing demand for regional authority. As a result, local governments were then allowed to adjust their own bylaws on greening ratios to 5 percent above or below the 20 percent base ratio.

The aim of the revision is to strengthen the discretionary power of municipalities through localization of decision-making, and to improve the environment for corporate investment in order to promote plant construction. It is also hoped that the revision will result in an increase of the greening ratio in factories.



Posted: 2004/05/27 12:02:37 PM
Japanese version