[in Japanese]

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The regulation of odor in Saitama prefecture had been carried out by using a form compensating the regulation of material concentration based on the national law with the regulation of odor concentration based on the prefectural ordinance since 1974 (Showa 49). However, the complaint forming numbers based on odor increased to about three times for these ten years, and it had been difficult to correspond to these complaints by using the regulating method based on the regulation of material concentration. Hence, it was begun to investigate introduction of the regulation of odor index.
At first, an elementary draft of the odor index based on actual condition survey at very business fields and so on was made. By considering views of every municipality, opinions of residents of Saitama prefecture, actual conditions of business owners, and so on to the draft, it was reached to introduce the regulation of odor index after last October, 2006.
For characteristics of this new regulation of odor, some items can be listed up as follows.
First, conventional uniform regulation in allover Saitama prefecture was changed to the regulation which differs in every municipality. Second, every municipality which introduced the regulation of odor index set standard suitable for actual condition of each areas. Third, the conventional regulation of material concentration is continued for some municipalities.

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For several years, problems with “Smells from restaurant exhausts” came to stand out in offensive odor complaints in the Yokohama City. For solutions to environmental problems of urban life such as these odor complaints, we incorporated not only the regulations but also on methods with emphasis on partnership between the government, citizens and firms in the “Yokohama City Ordinance on Conservation of Living Environment”. Many restaurants are small-scale and it is difficult for them to setup deodorization equipment because of the high cost and insufficient installation space. Technical solutions are effective for the odor complaints, however even more than that, solutions by negotiated settlement are often more effectively achieved. Since the above-mentioned ordinance was enforced, the odor complaints about the exhausts of restaurants has decreased, and some positive results have been achieved.

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In Kawasaki City, the contents of complaints about malodor have recently changed to those caused by urban life such as malodor from catering establishments, and countermeasures for malodor substances and complex odor, which have not been regulated up to now, have come to be demanded. In order to implement appropriate regulation standard considering the preservation of living environment in daily life, the regulation of odor index considering time zone, application area, category of business, and scale of business has been incorporated into the city ordinance. Implementation of regulation standard considering the actual circumstances of the region such as time zone is the distinguished feature for introduction of the regulation of odor index in this city. Thanks to this revision, guidance considering the actual circumstances of the region based on odor index, not only based on facilities as previously, has become possible.

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The sewage system holds an important role in urban life. Due to the nature of the system operation, however, generation of odor is unavoidable. For this reason, as a foundation of the odor prevention efforts, generation of odor should be controlled. In a sewage treatment plant, four steps of operation consisting of grasp of actual situation of odor generation, control of odor generation, odor collection and deodorization are required under the assumption of impossibility of perfect prevention of odor. In the Tokyo Metropolitan area, based on requirements of each step, measures for odor prevention such as odor control of building pits in drainage facilities, cleaning of sewage pipes, and odor collection and deodorization in pumping stations and water regeneration centers have been taken. Additional efforts include self-imposed activities of odor measurement and development of new deodorization technologies. Furthermore, we have been facilitating timely response to public complaints and providing improvement advisory of building pits to building owners. With the objective of reducing complaints of odor, we will continue our anti-odor efforts into the future.

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