ABSTRACT
The Japanese are capable of combining long-term corporate and national strategies with short-term targets. The Japanese economy is highly dependent on imported and semi-processed raw materials. The Japanese have left their mark on management principles. Successful strategies to automate the shop floor, to produce with quality, to deliver just in time or to adopt a customer-oriented strategy were all initiated in Japan. Japan is searching for a new framework for Sustainable Development and sees many advantages in advancing the Zero Emissions approach, and has therefore taken the concept and dedicated large research funds towards operationalising it, once again stealing a march on the rest of the world. A huge army of researchers are at work in universities throughout Japan to examine priority areas in the formulation of zero-emission-oriented material cycle processes, under the leadership of Professor Motoyuki Suzuki, National Co-ordinator of the Zero Emissions Research Programme.
