Technical Cooperation

A Visit to Japan by the Chinese Air Environment Improvement Mission

April 2016

Mitsuaki KAWASHIMA‚ Executive Technical Advisor

At an analytical instrument manufacturer

After concluding agreements with five cities in China‚ last year the city of Kitakyushu started a training course concerning air environment improvement.
This year‚ higher-level content has been introduced throughout the course.

Chinese cities can learn a lot from the experiences of the city of Kitakyushu over half a century‚ from the “history of Kitakyushu overcoming pollution” to the “restrictive measures taken by Kitakyushu against emission of VOC (volatile organic compounds)”‚ and the cited five cities must make efforts to apply what they have learned straightaway.

China‚ developing from the so-called factory of the world‚ is about to transition into a stable market with an economic growth rate of less than 7%.

With the national policy in search of a middle of the way between economic growth and control of the environmental pollution‚ the participants‚ who were visiting Japan with big expectations of their “training in the environmental capital of Kitakyushu” and shouldering the burden of the expectations of the state government and the municipal governments‚ showed a fervent determination not to miss a word of the lectures‚ a keenness that was clearly apparent in the following Q&A sessions.


As many of Japan’s famous analytical instrument manufacturers are located in Kyoto and Osaka‚ we made a short trip to visit some companies. After the stifling heat of summer‚ the sightseeing spots of Kyoto were seething with more tourists than ever.

The participants could get a glimpse of “dreamy Kyoto” between our on-site visits‚ but they were already viewing it with the eyes of an environmentalist‚ murmuring impressions of the streets of the old city of Kyoto under the beautiful skies and by the beautiful streams after sharply analyzing the sights from an environmental perspective.

They knew that Osaka is a commercial city and seem to have raced around downtown Osaka in the evening‚ knowing that it is the best place for shopping.

As a result‚ the return Shinkansen became a souvenir carrier‚ making the short trip really fruitful. The main souvenir they took back to China‚ I think‚ will be the “administrative and technological policies for the improvement of the urban environment”.