Update:January 27, 2014

On December 17, 2013, two Chinese researchers met Mie Prefectural Vice Governor Ishigaki, Deputy Consul General Kang and Consul Huang of the Consulate General of China in Nagoya.

　　　　

In December, 2013, a short study tour was carried out in Yokkaichi as part of the Project on Invitation to Japan for Environmental Research (PIER) - a program to invite researchers of environment-related technologies to Japan as part of the Program to Inherit and Develop the Principles of Expo 2005 Aichi Japan. Junior and mid-level environmental researchers from the Chinese Academy of Science attended the tour to learn lessons from the experiences and efforts in Yokkaichi against the city’s serious air and water pollution in the past. On December 17, two of these Chinese participants met with Mie Prefectural Vice Governor Ishigaki, Deputy Consul General Kang and Consul Huang of the Consulate General of China in Nagoya. The meeting attracted attention from the media and was covered by two TV stations and two newspaper companies.

 

On the second day of the tour, the Chinese researchers overlooked petrochemical complexes in the city from the summit of Mt. Gozaisho, which had been covered in snow since the previous day. On the third day, the meeting took place. The vice governor and the deputy consul general gave a warm welcome to these researchers, respectively remarking that it would be desirable that more and more Chinese visit Yokkaichi to learn environmental technology and its management know-how and that it was a great pleasure to talk with the participants who took this kind of study program. In return, the participants showed great interest in this tour, saying that they would like to learn Japanese environmental technology and measures to restore a blue and clear sky and clean water to China and that they wish to learn technology, owned by Yokkaichi, useful to overcome pollution issues in China and make efforts to see improved air quality in China in the future after returning home.

After that, the researchers visited the Isozu fishery harbor to feel the winds blowing down to the Isozu area from the mountains past the oil refineries. Thus, they were given an opportunity to learn how air pollutants might have spread over the area in those days when Yokkaichi suffered severe pollution decades ago.

They commented that the city today enjoys clear air and clean seawater without foul smells and that they realized it is possible for Chinese people as well to overcome the current pollution, even though they had heard that it took more than ten years for Yokkaichi to do so.