Overview of Japanese environmental regulations on noise

During the decade of the 1990s, considerable progress was made in Japan on the legislation and regulation of environmental noise. The Basic Environment Law, revised in 1993, states that "... the Government shall establish environmental quality Standards with regard to the environmental conditions related to noise. The Environmental Impact Assessment Law , passed by the Japanese Diet in 1997, took effect in 1999. The purpose of this law is to define the procedures for conducting environmental impact assessments (EIAs) on all large-scale projects which may have significant impact on the environment.