Recent Developments in Ground Contamination — Basic Thoughts on Regulations

This paper deals with basic thoughts of regulation policy and novel technologies about ground contamination. The authors believe that many techniques are developed depending on the regulation policy. Since each country has its own natural and historical background, it is not always a smart way that a government imports the idea of other governments when it issues a new regulation on environmental pollution. The Japanese government is currently discussing a new regulation on ground contamination by oil since no regulation on that but benzene has been established in Japan. The authors point out the necessary matters to issue such a new regulation, considering their former activity on contamination by oil and a case history. The authors also propose an appropriate application of the ideas of “precautionary principle” and “risk-based approach” to avoid a meaningless regulation on the reflection of Minamata disease.