A COMPARISON OF BUDGETARY CONSIDERATIONS RELATED TO ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
LAW IN JAPAN, KOREA, AND THE UNITED STATES
Budgetary considerations related to environmental protection in Japan, Korea, and the United States are compared in this chapter. Budgetary considerations are typically addressed within one of two contexts. The first typical context involves the consideration of factors that lead to fiscal constraint in the funding of governmental activities generally. Such factors, in turn, require governments to prioritize programs and activities in the distribution of scarce financial resources. The second typical context involves situations in which governments charge a department or agency with specific responsibilities, but fail to adequately fund the required programs and activities. Constraints of this type require departments and agencies to prioritize responsibilities in the allocation of scarce financial resources. In the comparison of budgetary considerations presented in this chapter, neither of the typical contexts of analysis are observed. Rather, the comparisons in this chapter are based on the absolute levels of environmental protection funding in Japan, Korea, and the United States, and on the proportionality of such funding to the total national budgets.
The Japanese economy is one of the strongest in the world (some observers say the strongest). Further, Japan has the lowest national debt among the larger developed nations (Switzerland has a lower national debt than that of Japan). There are, thus, no budget constraints that preclude or constrain the implementation of environmental protection law in Japan.
The environmental protection policies of Japan are, for the most part, both minimal and ambiguous (New trends, 1992, pp. 287 292). The funding for the Japanese Environment Protection Agency remains meager. This low level of funding is not, however, a constraint on the activities of the Env...