Abstract
The largest degree of illegal dumping was discovered in 1999 at the border of Aomori and Iwate Prefectures. Both prefectures have their own individual plans to remove this environmental plight and both completed a full industrial waste clearance in FY2013. They are currently struggling to clean the soil and ground water due to pollution from 1,4-Dioxane. As there is only one shared illegal dumping site, various efforts were made to create just one removal plan that would be beneficial to both stakeholders, however independent plans eventually won out. This paper illustrates the many twists and turns of administrative correspondence regarding this predicament, up until the Minister of the Environment agreed to the initial plans from both prefectures. Because the deadline for the Act on Special Measures for Specified Industrial Wastes will terminate the national subsidy for removing environmental nuisances in FY2022, it is suggested that the two prefectures must now make a concerted and strong effort to promote their current projects. They must fully understand one another and construct a cooperative system that will come to a mutual ending that benefits the projects they started.
