Newly appointed Environment Agency chief Yoriko Kawaguchi will use her private-sector experience to strengthen the agency as it prepares to become a ministry, but says her background has taught her to be wary of government regulation.

Kawaguchi also vowed to try to put the Kyoto Protocol -- an international agreement adopted in Kyoto in December 1997 to cut greenhouse gas emissions -- into force by 2002.

"This agency will become the Environment Ministry in six months. I think this reflects the interest of citizens in environmental issues. Citizens have high expectations (for the new ministry), and to meet these, it is important for the agency to prepare well over the next six months to create a more powerful Environment Ministry."

The responsibility for waste-related issues will be transferred from the Health and Welfare Ministry come January, and the agency needs to use its expanded jurisdiction to create a stronger entity, Kawaguchi said.

"Fortunately, the new ministry will be in charge of garbage and recycling, and using these as a base we can prepare over the next half year to make the new ministry a more powerful one."

The 59-year-old director general brings with her experience from the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, where she served for a time as deputy director general for global environmental affairs. Her appointment as agency head puts an end to her subsequent seven-year stint at Suntory Ltd.

After 28 years at MITI -- during which she took a doctorate in economics at Yale University, served as a minister at the Japanese Embassy in Washington and oversaw global environment issues for the MITI secretariat -- she joined the beverage maker as managing director in 1993.

Kawaguchi said she feels she was tapped for her new post due to her environmental track record and position in the private sector. While at Suntory, she helped to introduce an annual environmental report, which is now in its third year, pushed green purchasing and helped draft a set of basic environmental principles for the company, she said.

In addition, her work on environmental issues while at MITI -- including participating in talks with other countries on collaborative research and technological development as a means of curbing global warming -- probably contributed to her appointment to the helm of the agency.

The new agency chief also emphasized the role of technology and said she wants to bring an "on-site feel" to the agency. She thinks her private sector background will allow her to do this.

While at Suntory, she especially felt the difficulties inherent in recycling and stressed the importance of having an environmental policy that is in touch with citizens and industry.

On nudging society and industry in a more environmentally sustainable direction, she said she believes regulatory measures are more a tool of last resort for encouraging such change.

"For three years, I was a member of the Regulatory Reform Committee. From that perspective, and from the stance of a member of the private sector, I have fought to minimize government regulation."

Likewise, asked about the consistently poor air quality plaguing the nation's major cities, she stressed the importance of new technology and questioned the validity of simple regulatory measures.

On introducing environmental taxes in general and a greenhouse gas-reducing carbon tax in particular, she said she felt more debate was needed.

Asked how her 28 years at MITI might color her tenure as agency chief, she said her time as a civil servant was in the distant past.

"Sure, I was at MITI, but following that I was at Suntory for seven years, so it (my time at MITI) really feels like a very long time ago."

Kawaguchi said she maintains a belief she articulated during her time at MITI that balance among the environment, economy and energy issues are crucial. Economic growth should not be sacrificed for the environment, but neither should the environment be neglected for the sake of energy or the economy, she said.

In the current Cabinet, Kawaguchi is one of two ministers to come from the private sector and is only the fourth nonpolitician female appointed to head a government ministry or agency.

"Today I think Japan is in a state of flux, making change necessary and putting a premium on new ways of thinking and ways of doing. I am not confident that I can do that (at the agency), but I am certainly a bit different from the average person. How much of that I can bring to this job is the question for now."