The Kagawa Prefectural Assembly on Monday adopted an ordinance requiring prior consent for dumping industrial waste from outside the prefecture there.
The ordinance, which sets penalties for violations, is the first of its kind in Japan and is aimed at restricting illegal dumping of waste, prefectural government officials said.
However, citizens' groups say the ordinance marks a change of policy as the prefecture previously basically prohibited bringing industrial waste into the prefecture.
The ordinance will be enforced within one year after the prefectural government announces it in an official gazette, the officials said.
The ordinance says waste can only be brought into the prefecture for the purpose of recycling and with prior consent from the prefectural government.
The ordinance also obliges the prefectural government to keep track of waste brought into the prefecture and empowers it to conduct on-the-spot inspections of relevant facilities.
Companies bringing in waste without permission will be subject to fines of up to 300,000 yen.
In June 2000, the local government and residents of Teshima Island settled a long-standing dispute over 500,000 tons of industrial waste illegally dumped on the island, signing an agreement on its disposal.
The prefectural government, jointly with Mitsubishi Materials Corp., will in April start moving the waste to a disposal facility set up on nearby Naoshima Island in the Seto Inland Sea, aiming to complete the process by the end of March 2017, according to the agreement.
The ordinance was enacted in accordance with the prefectural government's plan to start a recycling project on Naoshima Island as a commercial venture, the officials said.
Industrial waste generated within the prefecture, estimated at some 800 tons per month, will not be enough to make the recycling facility profitable as it has capacity for 5,000 tons of waste per month, they said.