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Case to seek the declaration of nullity of the dispositions to grant licenses, mandatory revocation of the licenses, and revocation of the dispositions to renew the licenses

Country/Territory
Japan
Type of court
National - higher court
Date
Jul 30, 2012
Source
UNEP, InforMEA
Court name
Supreme Court of Japan
Seat of court
Tokyo
Judge
Okabe; Otani; Ohashi; Kiuchi;Yamasaki
Reference number
2012 (Gyo-Hi) 267
Language
Japanese
Subject
Waste & hazardous substances
Abstract

This case concerned residents living in the area surrounding an industrial waste final disposal site.

The governor of the Miyazaki Prefecture granted permission to a company collecting, transporting and disposing of industrial waste to establish an industrial waste treatment facility.
Appellants living in the area surrounding the disposal site sought revocation of the licenses granted to the company. The lower court determined that the appellants did not have standing to seek this revocation based on the argument that there was no evidence that the industrial waste disposal facility could cause harm to the appellant’s health and living environment.

The Supreme Court overruled this judgement by deciding that all appellants living within 1.8 kilometres of the facility had standing to seek revocation of the licenses obtained by the industrial waste disposal company. This is based on the finding that damages to their health or living environment due to issues arising from the discharge of hazardous substances from the disposal site, such as air and water pollution, soil contamination and offensive odor, could be expected.
However, those appellants living at least 20 kilometres away from the site, in an area not covered by the Environmental Impact Survey report, did not have standing, because it was not likely that they would suffer any damage to their health or living environment.

Full text
Case to seek the declaration of nullity.pdf
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Website
www.gobalhealthrights.org