Abstract
Importance of cleaner production (CP) as a measure for sustainable industrial development is increasingly recognized worldwide and it is urgently requested to clarify the promoting and inhibiting factors for CP so that appropriate industrial and environmental policies would be adopted in developing countries for the promotion of CP. With the aim of clarifying the background of CP introduction in Japanese industries, detailed case studies were carried out for four enterprises in Chiba Prefecture. Through the case studies, stringent enforcement of environmental regulations and possibility of cost saving were identified as the two major driving forces of CP. This finding was compared with the findings of a comparative study on CP introduction in ten Asian countries and it was concluded that weak enforcement of environmental regulations was one of the most important inhibiting factors for CP introduction in developing countries.
