Japan Diet Enacts Bill to Reduce Use of Microplastics

June 15, 2018

Tokyo- The Diet, Japan's parliament, enacted Friday a bill aimed at reducing the use of microplastics, contained in some cosmetics and other products.

The lawmaker-sponsored bill to revise the law on the promotion of marine litter disposal was adopted unanimously at a plenary meeting of the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet. The bill passed the House of Representatives, the lower chamber, on Tuesday.

With its first law to curb the use of microplastics, Japan aims to prevent microplastics from such products from flowing into rivers and the sea and negatively affecting the marine environment.

The law urges companies to reduce the use of plastic microbeads, currently contained in some cosmetics, facial cleansers and toothpastes.

Since March 2016, the Japan Cosmetic Industry Association has been calling on some 1,100 member companies to stop the use of microbeads in their products.

An Environment Ministry survey conducted in the year ended in March 2016 found that two of the surveyed 150 face cleansers and body soaps sold in Japan contained microbeads.

The production of cosmetics with microbeads has been banned in the United States, Britain, France and other countries. Jiji Press