In the construction boom in the lead-up to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games as well as major urban redevelopment projects, old buildings in the metropolitan area are being demolished in growing numbers. This adds to the urgency of the need to tighten regulations on dealing with asbestos, which was once widely used as a construction material and whose dust poses a serious health risk if inhaled.
From the 1960s to 2006, when it was banned in principle, asbestos was used as a low-cost construction material for fire-proofing and heat insulation in this country. Inhaling its tiny fibers — each roughly 1/5,000th the breadth of a hair — while cutting the materials at construction sites and spraying it on walls and ceilings exposed construction workers to the risk of contracting such illnesses as lung cancer and mesothelioma.
It takes decades for symptoms to emerge after inhaling asbestos dust, and the number of deaths due to health damage from exposure to asbestos dust has been growing rapidly in recent years. The number of people who died of mesothelioma reached 1,555 in 2017, triple the figure for 1995. There are no accurate numbers on how many people have died of lung cancer caused by asbestos dust, but the figure is estimated to be twice to several times larger than the number of mesothelioma victims. It's estimated that deaths from mesothelioma will continue to rise and reach 4,000 annually in 2030. One forecast estimates that as many as 100,000 people will die of the disease in the 40 years from 2000.