Abstract
In 2009, Ministry of the Environment, Japan, started the discussion about the implementation of bioassay to evaluate and control toxic chemical compounds in effluent and ambient water to complement the conventional chemical analysis of individual compounds, and is aimed to start the new system under Water Pollution Control Act as early as 2016. In this manuscript, the summary of the draft test manual, publicized by National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) in 2013, is presented, and then the current status of effluent management in other countries is summarized. There are still several difficulties in implementing the new system using bioassay such as the increase of the cost, the shortage of testing laboratories, the establishment of the benchmark, and toxicity reduction evaluation. Some of the solution measures are presented in addition to the authors' expectation for the implementation of this approach and the contribution of Reference Laboratory in NIES.
