Hideo Azuma*, Hisakazu Hirai* and Hisayuki Futami**

* Tokyo Metropolitan Government
** Japan Environmental Sanitation Center

+ Correspondence should be addressed to Hideo Azuma:
(2-8-1 Nishishinjyuku, Shinjyuku, Tokyo 163-01 Japan)

Abstract

Waste management is an environmental issue that closely relates to our daily lives. Nowadays most industrialized countries struggle against huge and diverse generation of wastes in spite of the creation of advanced disposal facilities and they focus on a recycling society. Moreover waste water and solid waste management have been recognized as important from the viewpoint of environmental sanitation and public health. Japan has much experience in the field of waste management as well as pollution control during its period of rapid economic growth and has established unique technologies and systems, which could be useful overseas, too. Some activities of other countries could give us ideas for better solutions as well. The Japan Society of Waste Management Experts (JSWME) consists of about 3,000 members from a variety of fields. "How JSWME can contribute to the developement of waste management in the world?" has been one of the subjects the International Relations Committee of JSWME has discussed. We have considered a "job bank for international cooperation" which would support official cooperation agencies. As one step, we carried out a poll on this matter at the JSWME's 6th annual conference and followed it with a FAX questionnaire to the members. The results showed that the members were very interested in international cooperation and supported the job bank idea. Over 10% of members, 309 persons, replied to the questionnaire and 82% of the respondents, 256 persons, answered that they would like to or might participate in international cooperation. We also received many opinions and comments on this matter.