VOC emission reduction policy in Japan through the “best mix” of policies

The Air Pollution Control Law of Japan was revised in 2004 to introduce a policy-mix to reduce emissions of VOCs from stationary sources. The policy-mix resulted in a successful achievement of emission reduction target by the fiscal year 2010, while significant gap remain in terms of ambient concentration of photochemical oxidants from the ex-ante estimate.

This study adress two research questions related to this policy-mix scheme including:
“What were the factors which facilitated the success in the VOC reduction?” and
“What were the factors which hindered the improvement in the ambient level of photochemical oxidants despite the reduction in the precursor?”