Yokkaichi is now offering its knowhow in solving pollution problems to developing countries.

From a Meiji Port Over the times, Yokkaichi has changed from a market town to a night post town and then to a port city. After World War II, this city developed as an major oil-refining station. An unwanted by-product, air and water pollution, became a major social problem. Yokkaichi groped with this problem for many years and is now a city with only minor pollution problems.

Air and Water Pollution Problem At present, Yokkaichi is offering its antipollution knowhow, accrued over the years, to many developing nations. As one program of international goodwill and understanding, it recently established the International Center for Environmental Technology Transfer (ICETT).

The Environment

Overcoming Pollution From late the 1960s to the early 1970s, environmental pollution was a big social problem in Yokkaichi. In 1965, an antipollution law was passed to fund relief for patients suffering from pollution. In 1972, another law was passed to restrict the discharge of sulfur dioxide from factories.

Factories and Antipollution Facilities 440 billion yen from government and private funds have been set aside to enforce the various antipollution policies.

International Center for Environmental Technology Transfer (ICETT)

This is an organization established in 1991 and made up of government and local businesses to share the accrued antipollution knowhow with the developing nations of Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe. It has its own facilities for training specialists from abroad and also employs on-the-job training. The effort has promoted international understanding and goodwill.