Abstract:

Since the 1970s, Japan has promulgated a series of soil pollution prevention and control laws, which have been continuously improved and revised according to the changes of population, resources and economic structure. Thus, Japan has gradually established a set of systematic soil pollution prevention and control management system, which makes Japan one of the most advanced countries in the world for soil pollution prevention and control. Based on the transaction costs of soil pollution prevention and control, we compared the search cost, negotiation cost and execution cost of different policy tools adopted by Japan for point source and non-point source soil pollution. It is found that that the key strategy to realize effective prevention and control against point source soil pollution in Japan lies in the comprehensive use of policies and regulations, economic tools and educational tools. For non-point source soil pollution areas in Japan, the sources of pollution are difficult to monitor, the search cost is huge, and the effect of mandatory policy regulation is not good. Thus, the strategy is to use educational tools with low transaction costs. In the process of soil pollution prevention and control in China, we can learn from Japan’s experiences, make full use of policies and regulations, economic tools and educational tools, and optimize soil pollution prevention and control measures from the aspects of legislation and law enforcement, zoning governance, and enhanced disclosure of pollutant discharge, so as to improve the efficiency and quality of soil pollution prevention and control.

Key words: transaction cost, soil pollution, prevention strategy, policy regulation, economic tools, educational tools