The National Science Foundation's (NSF) Tokyo Office periodically receives and disseminates reports on research developments in Japan that are related to the Foundation's mission. NSF-sponsored researchers currently working in Japan prepare many of these reports. These reports present information for use by NSF program managers and policy makers; they are not statements of NSF policy. .
Ms. Diana Bauer, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, California, prepared the following report. Ms. Bauer was a participant in the 1998 Summer Institute sponsored by NSF/NIH/USDA and the Science and Technology Agency of Japan. Dr. Mitsuro Hattori of the Mechanical Engineering Laboratory, MITI/AIST, hosted Ms. Bauer. Ms. Bauer can be reached via email at: diana@greenmfg.me.berkeley.edu
During my two months in Japan, my focus of study was the intersection of industry and the environment. During the course of my stay, I was able to visit several companies, research labs, universities, and government policy offices. Thus, in addition to observing what types of practices were put into play at the industry level, I was also able to get a feel for how government policy was directly or indirectly influencing these practices. MITI (Ministry of International Trade and Industry) is the governmental body that has a central role in this, as it has branches participating in policy development, as well as technological research. I was based at MEL (Mechanical Engineering Laboratory) that is part of AIST (Agency of Industrial Science and Technology), a branch of MITI.
The current focus for industrial environmental activities in Japan is somewhat different from that in the US, and is centered on the following:
1. Design for recyclability. In some cases, such as at Fuji Xerox and Sony, the recycling and manufacturing activities are housed at the same location and parts recovered from the recycling facility were assembled into new products. There is also a home appliances recycling test facility-a joint project among Hitachi, Panasonic, Sony, Mitsubishi, and MITI-that focuses on demonstrations of recycling processes for refrigerators, air conditioners, televisions, and washing machines.
2. Energy efficiency. This is mainly at the product use phase, but also in manufacturing. Customers in Japan are reportedly more sensitive to product energy efficiency than in the US due to higher energy costs, and thus are more apt to make product selections based on energy efficiency. Similarly, the motivation for improving energy efficiency at the manufacturing stage is clear. In Japan, due in part to the subtropical climate, air conditioning forms a large part of the overall energy costs in manufacturing, and there are some efforts to devise ways of reducing this. For example, at MEL, there was a recent research project in which a feed forward positioning system was developed to compensate for displacements caused by thermal expansion so that the dependency on air conditioning to produce accurate parts was reduced.
3. Quality. This focus is a natural extension of conventional Japanese manufacturing practice. There is some question, however, whether this actually leads to enhanced environmental performance, as Japanese consumers are even more enamored of the latest technology than Americans. For example, cars in Japan are used for an average of only 7 years. Extending their useful life is close to pointless without some changes in consumer behavior. In some cases, used products can be resold elsewhere. For products reused outside of Japan, however, the material loops are generally not closed; most companies made no attempt to address material cycling for products and components shipped out of Japan. The tradeoffs regarding component quality become quite murky in cases where components are reused in new products.
4. Miniaturization. In Japan, miniature telephones, cameras, etc. are quite popular, and there is research in factory miniaturization as well. There is research at MEL looking into development of "desktop factories." At its best, this type of approach conserves space, as well as materials, and thus also reduces facility electricity overhead.
Research at universities and government laboratories plays a supportive role in the environmental picture. The focus of research has shifted recently. Several years ago, MEL had several production-related projects, such as ecofactory (a unit process model-based approach to project process by process manufacturing energy and material flows) and the machine tool positional compensation system mentioned above. Recently, however, the focus has shifted to design for recycling and demanufacturing. There is also some LCA-related activity focusing on magnesium in automobiles. There are some projects at NRIM (National Research Institute for Metals) aimed at achieving desired material performance characteristics through macrostructure design, as an alternative to alloying with environmentally unfavorable secondary elements. NIRE (National Institute for Resources and the Environment) is developing a national materials database for use by companies doing LCA analysis. There is some work at Keio University on cutting fluid use reduction, and work at Tokyo University on design for demanufacturing.
The research I completed in Japan enabled me to gain better perspective on my doctoral research project here in the US, which focuses mainly on emissions from manufacturing processes. It is more obvious to me now that the local policy and regulatory climate, as well the research culture, shape the types of questions that are asked and the way in which they are answered, especially relating to fields which depend on value judgements. In the future, I hope to do more international comparative work in this area, if not in my dissertation, then afterwards.
Acknowledgements: This work was sponsored by the 1998 Summer Institute in Japan. I am grateful to the many company representatives, researchers, and other individuals who took the time to meet with me. I would especially like to thank my host colleagues at MEL, Mitsuro Hattori and associates, for arranging the company visits. Also, I would like to thank Professor Shuzaburo Takeda of Tokai University who set up many policy-related meetings.