自動車の環境問題は、都市部の大気汚染のように人間への害が顕在化している物は、その時代に応じたかなり積極的な対策が打たれてきた。しかし、21世紀の環境問題として最大の課題になると考えられる「地球温暖化」問題は、規模が大きく人間の感覚ではその存在が実感しにくいため、まだその対応は途に着いたばかりである。「地球温暖化」は、100年単位の長期にわたって地球的規模で取り組まなければならない問題であり、原因である化石エネルギーの消費活動をどれだけ削減すれぱ良いのか、今世界各国は全体目標の設定を迫られている。二酸化炭素排出量の20%を占めている自動車の将来も、それ無しには語れないと考えられる。21世紀まで3年となった今、その問題の規模の大きさを個人的試算ではあるが具体的に把握し、21世紀の自動車デザインの在り方を考える出発点としたい。

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The fuel economies for various kinds of automobiles have been investigated. According to the fuel economy based upon the department of transportation standard, the fuel economies in 2000 improved 9-23% compared to those in 1990 for each class of the curb weight. However, the total fuel economy in Japan, which were estimated from the both data of the total amount of fuel consumption and total killometrage in Japan from 1965 to 2000, show about 9 km/liter, and in the recent decade it became rather worse. The reason for this inconsistency is that the large size automobile became popular because of the inclination of user, anti-regulation of automobile tax, price down of fuel and so on. In order to improve the total fuel economy aiming the reduction of CO₂ emission, two problems, which are "improvement of the fuel economy for the respective automobile" and "suppression of the over sizing of automobile", are examined.

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This paper studies the process and meaning of the enactment of exhaust emission control in Japan. In the 1960s, the health hazards caused by exhaust emission became a serious social problem. The existing controls implemented by the Transport Ministry had been based on insufficient research, and emissions were not regulated by numeric values. The Ministry therefore underwent another study and surveyed the effect of exhaust emission on air pollution. It also weighed the opinions of automobile companies in drafting new regulations. But the resulting regulations proved to be only transitional. Because the study of exhaust emission was not thorough enough, controls were made only on CO, in effect reflecting the technical capabilities of the automobile companies and having only a limited effect on decreasing air pollution. But it did have some significance as it served as the foundation for exhaust emission control thereafter and reduced CO of individual cars. The regulation led automobile companies to question air pollution in Japan and improve their products. This was a typical case in which national opinion on regulation influenced the Ministry into taking the initiative to control exhaust emission.

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This paper analyzes characteristics of a Cycle Economy, a key concept of today's Japanese environmental policy. In a Cycle Economy, the width of the cycle or loop may be neglected. Then it is important to design the spatial management system of wastes and post consumer goods from the view point of economic geography.
Considering the location of industrial nodes, it is important to establish how efficient this industry collects waste and develops the markets of recycled goods. The Japanese government has adopted the Eco-Town Project to develop a vein industry. Administrative intervention is required to support the Eco-town project as a trial to overcome various regulations. Next the paper discusses five aspects of agglomeration of the Kitakyushu Eco Town Project.
Until the 1980s, the disposal of End of Life Vehicles (ELV) was considered unproblematic in Japan. But in recent years, as environmental problems have attracted increasing attention, the processing of ELV has become a critical environmental issue. Discarded ELV represent a serious source of waste generation and pollution. After the EU Directive on ELV was published, the Japanese government has considered an ELV Recycling Act. In the EU Directive, producers must take back the ELV free of charge. To solve the problems, especially how to process ASR, the Japanese government requested car producers to take back ASR using EPR consideration. The EPR is the concept that manufacturers and importers of products should bear a significant burden of responsibility for the environmental impact of their products throughout the product life-cycle. This includes the upstream impact of materials selection, the impact of the manufacturing process itself, and the downstream impact from the use and disposal of end of life products. Producers accept responsibility when they design products to minimize the life-cycle environmental impact, and when they accept legal, physical, and socio-economic responsibility for environmental impact that cannot be estimated by the design alone.

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中国は北米・欧州を凌駕し世界最大の自動車市場になった。中国では，自動車保有台数の増加に伴い使用済自動車台数も急速に増加しているのと同時に，資源の枯渇や使用済自動車の不適切な処理による環境汚染等の影響も懸念されている。今後，中国の再生資源回収産業が健全に成長することにより，使用済自動車からの物質や素材がリサイクル資源として利用できる。本稿は将来の中国における自動車国内需要を推計し，過去のデータから廃車率をワイブル分布として推定することにより，将来の中国における使用済自動車台数を予測し，そこからの再生資源ポテンシャルを推定する。2020年中国国内の使用済自動車の発生台数は2,177.2万台で，そこからの再生資源ポテンシャルは7,410.3万トンと推定された。

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The purpose of this study is to investigate the background of low-price vehicles launched by Toyota, Honda, and Nissan (Japan's Big Three) in emerging automobile markets, and to evaluate their performance so far.
As discussed in several previous studies, Japan's Big Three delayed their entry into emerging markets and have suffered recently from sluggish growth. It is an urgent issue for them to cultivate emerging markets. Low-price vehicles are their master cards to address this agenda.
Basically, there are three low-price vehicle models, namely the Toyota Etios, Honda Brio, and Nissan Micra. We can find common points and differences when we explore the characteristics of the three models. We understand that all of the models have achieved high levels of local procurement and consequently low prices of around ten thousand US dollars. On the other hand, we also show that the Etios and Brio are aimed more at the Indian market, while the Micra is targeted more to the global market.
After discussing their characteristics, we establish our standpoints and evaluate the performance of the three models. As a result, we find that the performance of the models as a whole is less than expected. We clarify that both the Etios and Brio have not succeeded in raising the shares of Toyota and Honda in the Indian market. We also find that the expansion of global sales of the Micra is almost exclusively due to the development of a distribution network.
Finally, we analyze the background of the results. Consequently, we infer that the Etios and Brio have no apparent features that differentiate them from the small vehicles of other major makers, such as the Suzuki Maruti, and that they fail to appeal effectively to Indian consumers, while the Micra has lost its appeal, especially in advanced countries, because dramatic cost reductions have been accompanied by a decline in the feeling of quality.

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The number of car repair workshops has recently increased in Japan, and it reached 74, 741 workshops and 382, 760 car repair workers in 1979. Most of the workshops are of small-size and a large amount of paints and solvents are used there. But the working conditions and the environment are not necessarily well known. Therefore, we investigated 7 car repair workshops to make clear the working conditions and the environment, especially the actual conditions of the use of solvents and health of the workers. The average number of the investigated car repair workers was 5.7 persons per workshop and this was almost the same as the average in Japan. The consumption of paints per workshop was 56±50 kg/month and that of solvents was 137±93 kg/month. Twenty-three kinds of solvents used in the 7 workshops were analysed by gas chromatography. Toluene was most often and largely contained among the constituents in the solvents ingredients of which have to be legally indicated. Xylene came next. Mixtures of the petroleum class were most largely contained in the solvents the constituents of which have not to be legally indicated. The next one was ethylbenzene, which usually goes with xylene. The average amount of the constituents which must be legally indicated were only 42% in the solvents (N=23). The indicated contents and the analysed ones relatively well coincided with each other, but some constituents which must be indicated were found not declared. The short-term concentrations of the solvents at the breathing zone of the workers during painting were beyond the threshold limit value in 10 of 14 workers. But the time weighted average concentrations measured by personal monitoring were below the TLV in 12 of 13 workers and the average of the TWA was about 38% of the TLV in Japan. The painters showed a tendency to have more complaints of drunkenness, light-headedness, sorethroat, which suggested that the painters were exposed to solvents during work. The painters had significantly more complaints of diarrhoea and showed a tendency to have more epigastric discomfort, dullness of extremities and dizziness, indicating that the effects of solvents on the complaints could be suspected. In the laboratory examination, LDHs were significantly lower in the painters than those in the other workers, but the relation between the exposure of solvents and the change of LDH was not clear. It is considered that the working conditions, the environment and the health care for the workers in small-sized car repair workshops should be improved in order to prevent the workers from being poisoned by organic solvents.

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The concept of vehicle specific gravity has been employed as an indicator for measuring the progress achieved in reducing the weight of transportation equipment. In this paper, to estimate the vehicle specific gravity for 1997 Japanese midsize and compact passenger car, the weight percents of the 22 materials making up the 1997 car are estimated by not only approximate function analysis based on the method of least squares and weight percents of the 22 materials making up from the 1973 to the 1992 cars, but also the trend analysis peculiar to the domestic passenger car. The results show that the weighted average of coefficient of relative correlation depending on 22 approximate functions is 0.96 and the error between an estimated and actual vehicle specific gravity is about 1.3 percent.

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The prolonged recession in Japan and on-going globalization have changed the purchasing policies of Japanese automobile and autoparts makers. Because Japanese auto and autoparts makers maintain operations of Japanese transplants in East Asia, Japanese autoparts imports have been increasing since the Asian economic crisis in 1997. This paper uses simple statistical analysis (trade specialization coefficient and appropriate weights) in autoparts trade between Japan and Korea, China, Taiwan, and Thailand. From the analysis, Japanese-Chinese and Japanese-Thai trade show the process of autoparts complementation.
In spite of the fact that autoparts imports from Korea have increased, the comparative advantage of the items is that same as that in Chinese. That is, Chinese products have a cost advantage if Korean autoparts makers produce then same items. Korean makers may lose their position as exporters of Japanese autoparts. Taiwanese autoparts makers are building transplants in China. Japanese-Taiwanese trade of autoparts may decrease in its importance because Taiwanese makers shift production from Taiwan to China, and in addition, the Taiwanese industrial structure is changing to the high-tech sector. The reason why China and Thailand will likely increasingly be autoparts suppliers to Japan is that there are many Japanese transplants of auto and autoparts makers in China and Thailand. Japanese autoparts imports from China and Thailand are likely to increase because there is a trend for Japanese auto makers to purchase from Japanese parts makers. In addition, the items imported from Thailand are different from those imported from China. Chinese automotive industry shows rapid growth, and China already has an established industrial structure. Thailand is accumulating its automobile industry, and Thailand has a long-term experience of working within the Japanese style.
Imports from East Asia of low and middle value-added items will likely increase. It is expected that especially China and Thailand will play an important role as autoparts suppliers to Japan.

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