Japan’s Local Environmental Index or Indicators

In Japan environmental indicators have often been made by local governments since 1980's. They are efficient and effective measures for monitoring state of environment. table 1 expresses main indices and indicators used by Japan’s local authorities.

At the late of 1980’s three local governments have developed Urban Environmental Quality Index (UEQI) supported by National Institute of Environmental Studies (NIES). They focused on local level, recently it has been developed easy indices or indicators focus on global level. These indicators are useful to help for evaluating environmental performance and setting targets on the local environmental plan. This paper introduces Japan’s different type of indices and indicators.