A bill that would allow limits on visitors to national parks and other sensitive areas to protect the sites at a time of improved access and growing popularity was approved Friday by the Cabinet.

The bill is designed to combat the growing amount of human traffic to parks and the attendant impact on wildlife, including waste left behind and wild plants destroyed. It is targeted at national parks, quasi-national parks and prefecture-designated natural parks.

The amendment is to take effect in April 2003, at which time Environment Ministry officials say they hope to impose restrictions on visitors to Shiretoko National Park in northeastern Hokkaido.

Under the bill, nongovernment groups and local residents would be allowed to manage parks instead of the national or local governments, as well as enforce restrictions on the number of daily visitors and the period they are allowed inside the parks.

The revision would also provide for agreements with local nonprofit groups and local governments to manage parks and see that restrictions are being obeyed.

In the future, the ministry may limit objects, as well as people, allowed into protected areas, as well as place restrictions on pets and the amount of time visitors can spend in parks.

Soil pollution targeted

The government on Friday gave the nod to a bill targeting soil pollution that would oblige landowners to inspect suspect sites for pollution and prevent threats to human health if contamination is discovered.

The bill would require factories and other sites that have produced, handled or processed harmful chemicals to conduct checks when selling or redeveloping their property.

If contamination is discovered, remedial steps would be required to ensure it poses no risks to people, including by leaching into groundwater.

Property owners would be responsible for paying for remedial measures, ranging from sealing the area off to a wholesale cleanup. But if another party is responsible, owners could ask them to pay the cleanup costs.

A fund, including money from industry, would also be set up to help in cases where costs cannot be covered. However, resistance from business is strong, as the head of the Japan Federation of Economic Organizations (Keidanren) told Environment Minister Hiroshi Ohki in a meeting Wednesday.

The bill comes amid a jump in discoveries of contamination, with more than 100 new cases found in 1998 and 1999, as more companies conduct checks for pollution prior to redevelopment and in order to meet environmental certification requirements.