Toxic Korean Garbage Littering Japanese Beaches
A follow-up to the last story about Japan’s problems with South Korean garbage dumping:
About 15,000 plastic containers have washed ashore on the Sea of Japan coast since January, with one third of them carrying Hangul characters, Environment Ministry officials said Tuesday.
The containers have washed ashore in 11 prefectures, and the ministry plans to ask the South Korean government to investigate the cause and to take preventive measures, the officials said.
The ministry started conducting hearings with local governments on Jan. 15, when it was confirmed that the plastic containers washed ashore at a number of places including Hirado in Nagasaki Prefecture.
By prefecture, 4,662 containers have washed ashore in Nagasaki, 3,738 in Shimane and 2,078 in Fukuoka, the officials said.
The plastic tanks have a capacity of about 20 liters. Some of them carry Hangul characters for “hazardous” or “oxidizing agent,” while others carry chemical formulas for hydrogen peroxide solution and nitric acid, the officials said.
[Image in this post taken from this Japanese site, which has more photos of South Korean garbage on Japanese beaches.]
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Ok, so the chemicals are obviously bad for the environment and shouldn’t be dumped, but how is this garbage any different than the already horrific amount of garbage on the beaches as it is?
I understand this man’s point about not wanting to use tax money to clean up foreign trash so maybe the regional government can work something out with Korea so both countries can more effectively deal with the situation.
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Kevin
>>”Ok, so the chemicals are obviously bad for the environment and shouldn’t be dumped, but how is this garbage any different than the already horrific amount of garbage on the beaches as it is?”
So, you’re saying that, since there is already a litter problem in Japan, what’s the difference if more trash floats in from a foreign nation? Japan is an open, international waste dump?
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You would have Japan make official complaints to Korea to alter the current of the sea?
I’m just trying to point out that focusing on the origin of the garbage seems pretty silly to me and even more so when only Korea is singled out. They can appeal to the Korean government to put stricter restrictions on toxic dumping, but even in the article, it’s not clear if this dumping is intentional:
“The officials said it is possible that plastic containers left on the coast of South Korea have drifted to Japan as seaweed farmers in the country use acidic liquids to disinfect nets.”
That being said, it’s not just Korean garbage that’s floating onto the shores of Japan. If you look at that link that James posted it mentions that even nuclear materials used in Soviet submarines were washing up on the beaches:
そして日本海の東方には，ロシア語が書かれたゴミが漂着するそうである．旧ソ連の原子力潜水艦など原子力関連の物質も放置されてたままという。
Also, in the article it says that of the 15,000 containers on the beach only 1/3 of them had Hangul characters on them. That doesn’t lessen Korea’s responsibility in dealing with its own trash any, but there are still 2/3 or 10,000 containers that are presumably Japanese in origin. Maybe this article should have been titled Japan pollutes its own beaches.
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Speaking of countries being garbage dumps, I recall the JPEPA, the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement, which was about to be signed by the Philippine government when it suddenly ran into strong opposition from citizens, after it was discovered that a hidden clause allowed Japan to dump toxic industrial wastes in the Philippines.
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Marine dumping is prohibited by London Convention, to which Korea is a party.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_on_the_Prevention_of_Marine_Pollution_by_Dumping_of_Wastes_and_Other_Matter
Dumping wastes into its own territorial water is also prohibited by London Convention. So, Japan does not have to ask Korea to change the current in the Sea of Japan. Japan should just demand Korea to keep its words.
“Also, in the article it says that of the 15,000 containers on the beach only 1/3 of them had Hangul characters on them. That doesn’t lessen Korea’s responsibility in dealing with its own trash any, but there are still 2/3 or 10,000 containers that are presumably Japanese in origin.”
I used to live on the Sea of Japan side in Japan and participated in beach clean-ups a couple of times. I can testify that those wastes on the beach had either Korean letters or no letters at all. In the latter case, labels had been pealed off. I have never seen wastes with Japanese letters on beach.
Sea of Japan is much better place, once Korea stops marine dumping.
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“I have never seen wastes with Japanese letters on beach.”
They certainly do exist.
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You can see it on the shores of Yakushima and Tanegashima as well.
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That’s disgraceful …. but i’m glad it’s easily identifiable so maybe there can be a resolution or atleast a clean-up process put in place involving Korea.
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If I was a responsible Japanese oldtimer fisherman and had some spare time, I would go around collecting this stuff in a giant net and go deliver it in big media hoopla as I break international waters without any permission. After all, the stuff came from over there, so I would only be obliged to bring it all back to them.
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The currents in the Japan Sea are circular, so that anything dumped off the coast of Korea will wash up on the coast of Japan. And vice-versa, presumably – though we don’t hear about that in Japan much. These currents were a great help hundreds of years ago in sailing to the continent, but now the various sticky-out bits of Japan along the coast (the Noto peninsula is great for that) end up being like a comb, snagging all the crap.
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I thought this was already addressed?
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/02/123_18718.html
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japan should clean up their own act first. i live on the pacific side and there is plenty of garbage, almost all of which is of local origin. its truly disgusting. no public awareness about watersheds, catchments etc. no pollution traps. no bins in public locations. no ownership of the beach. the surfers are the worst – eating their combinibento and then leaving it on the very beach they use.
this way of thinking thru the nationalistic lens seems symptomatic of east asians.
koreans are enraged by historical abuse of korean women by japan and yet are silent on the current violations committed in modern korea.
chinese hate japan for historical atrocities but wont apply that vitriole to their own current abuses.
japan is up in arms about dodgy chinese imported food, in a period with scandal after scandal of locally produced substandard and dangerous processed foods.
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“in a period with scandal after scandal of locally produced substandard and dangerous processed foods.”
Not that these people get off scot-free, by any means. Yuki-jirushi was just about brought down by two major food scandals, in 2000 (milk) and 2002 (meat) or so. Their milk sales stopped for a while, and now survive in disguise, as it were, as MegMilk.
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Evan. You are arguing based on what?
“no public awareness about watersheds, catchments etc.”
You can easily find lots of pages like this on the internet about people actively cleaning seashores and rivers as their volunteer works.
http://www.portland.ne.jp/~shokokai/seinenbu/seisou016_05.html
“no pollution traps.”
Japan has very strict anti-water pollution laws. Rainwater can go straight to the river, but other water like water from kitchen or washing machine must go through sewage system.
“no bins in public locations.”
That’s because everyone is supposed to bring back his own garbage. Polluter must clean up. The other reason is that there is a public concern that terrorists may set bombs in public garbage bins at busy stations.
“no ownership of the beach.”
Beaches belong to the national government. So are the rivers. What’s wrong with it?
When people start talking based on non-facts, the quality of the discussion deteriorates rapidly. Why don’t we stick to the facts?
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Japan can just send the bill for clean up to Korea. No negotiating.
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Yeah, and Korea can choose to reject it out of hand. No negotiating.
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I snorkel in Niigata and I see enough waste from Japan in the ocean here. I also bought a metal detector and found so much Japanese coffee cans under the sand at the beach. We need to teach Japanese to stop littering the oceans too.
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