Issues of Safety Regulations for Chemical Processes and Its Future Framework

Abstract

There are three problems about the safety regulations of chemical processes in Japan. First, there are multiple laws and regulations to be applied to chemical plant because of the fragmented structure of ministries. Second is the quality control of technical standards. Because of slow pace of updating, those standards sometimes become obstacles to technological development. Third, there is not enough implementation capacity in government and non-governmental third parties. Based on those analysis, strengthened roles of non-governmental third parties are recommended.