Introduction

My name is William Duncan, General Director of the USA Office of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association. I am pleased to be with you today and honored to represent our Chairman Yoshihide Munekuni at this distinguished gathering. Mr. Munekuni both as Honda's Chairman and Chairman of JAMA is an ardent advocate for developing and applying cutting edge technology on a global basis. His mission is to provide consumers around the world with the kind of personal mobility they seek while at the same time protecting the environment, maximizing safety, and conserving resources.

Mr. Munekuni is a strong supporter of the Bibendum program and has asked me to send both his regrets for being unable to join you today and his sincere best wishes for a successful meeting and Challenge Bibendum.

Challenge

The personal challenge I have before me today is to cover perspectives and initiatives on sustainable mobility in Japan in 10 minutes. This is obviously a vast subject. However, perhaps I can provide you a glimpse into the challenges in Japan, developing trends in technology, and JAMA's role in encouraging sustainable mobility.

The challenges to sustainable mobility in Japan are not dissimilar to those of many countries around the world but these challenges are clearly intensified by geography and concentration of industry and population. Japan is somewhat smaller than California. However given the rugged mountainous terrain less than 40 percent of this land area is habitable. Japan has a population of 127 million people. One way to grasp the environmental challenges facing Japan is to imagine about 44 percent of the U.S. population and economic activity concentrated in the state of Michigan.

These geographical characteristics combined with patterns of economic development and the scarcity of indigenous natural resources, particularly petroleum, help explain Japan's high reliance on mass transportation and the structure of Japan's automobile market. It is not surprising, for example, that more than 80 percent of Japan's car market consists of small cars less than 2000cc, and that this percent has been growing in recent years.

With economic growth and population concentration comes an urgency to address social and environmental factors that would limit growth and the quality of life. High on this list for the automobile industry are air pollution, fuel consumption, and vehicle disposal. The automobile industry in cooperation with the government and related industries is addressing these problems both in Japan and globally. JAMA plays a central role in this effort.

JAMA

First a brief word about JAMA. - JAMA is a Tokyo based association representing the 15 vehicle and motorcycle manufacturers located in Japan. We are responsible for coordinating a wide variety of industry activities at both the national and international level. These activities relate to technical regulations, the environment, energy, distribution, auto parts procurement, harmonization of international standards, trade, research, statistical reporting, and public education campaigns among many others. JAMA is also responsible for the Tokyo Motor Show. Policy is determined by a board of directors consisting of the Chairmen and senior executive officers of the member companies. The board is supported by approximately 69 committees and subcommittees made up of designated executives from the member companies. The association has a staff of about 120 professionals implementing these policies. JAMA has overseas offices in North America, Europe, China and Singapore.

Sustainable mobility relates either directly or indirectly to all of these activities. However, I will limit my discussion here to a few of the initiatives and future trends in the three important areas of fighting pollution, global warming, and vehicle disposal.

Air Pollution

Japanese vehicle manufacturers have been aggressively seeking and applying technology in the battle against air pollution since the mid-1960s. In the later part of the 1970s the government increased its emission regulations mandating a 90 percent reduction in carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide and hydrocarbon for gasoline vehicles. The government mandated another 70 percent reduction in the year 2000. Another 50 percent reduction in NOx and HC emissions will go into effect starting in 2005. CO and HC requirements were established for motorcycles in 1998.

Meanwhile, government and industry has been making a frontal assault on diesel emissions, notably NOx and particulates. New regulations to go into effect next month in Japan will bring NOx and particulate matter levels to about 80 percent below their pre-regulated levels. Starting in 2005 NOx from diesels will be reduced another 50 percent and PM another 80 percent.

For the last 35 to 40 years manufacturers have been striving to develop new technologies to meet and exceed these standards. Recent examples include exhaust gas recirculation and catalytic converters with O2 sensors for gasoline vehicles and ceramic filters and common rail-type elecronic fuel injection systems for diesels.

More recently, however, the trend is towards the introduction of what the Japanese call clean energy vehicles, that is those fueled by CNG, electric, hybrid technology, diesel-alternative LPG, and Methanol. In 1995 there were 11,043 of these vehicles on the road. In 2002 the number had reached 130,329. This may seem like a small number given that there are currently approximately 74 million vehicles on the road in Japan. However, the trend is clear and the government action plan target is to bring this to over 3.48 million over the next seven years. The target for total Low Emission Vehicles in 2010, including low emission gasoline powered vehicles, is to exceed 10 million.

Noise Pollution

Noise pollution is another significant problem in a concentrated population and one which tire manufacturers and automakers have been addressing for over 30 years. With vehicles noise levels now 90 percent of what they were 30 years ago, Japan's automakers produce the quietest vehicles in the world. JAMA regularly undertakes public information campaigns to encourage good driving habits designed to lower noise pollution further.

Fuel Consumption/Global Warming

Following the Kyoto protocol of 1997 Japan established a target of reducing greenhouse gases by 6% below the 1990 level for the 2008-2012 period The transport sector, which makes up about 21.2 percent of the total CO₂ emissions in Japan will help to achieve this goal by bringing CO₂ emissions to the 1995 level by 2010, which would be a 16 percent reduction from base line levels. Automobiles account for about 88 percent of the transport sector. These goals will be accomplished in three ways. One is through improvements in the fuel economy of the combustion engine, two is through the introduction of clean energy vehicles mentioned above, and the third is through the further development of intelligent transport systems.

To accomplish these goals the Government of Japan revised the Energy Conservation Act in 1998 establishing a target to improve fuel economy of gasoline powered passenger cars by 22.8 percent by 2010 and diesel powered passenger cars by 14.9 percent by 2005 over the 1995 level. Japan has already seen a substantial increase in fuel efficiency. Fuel economy of new gasoline-powered passenger cars has increased from 12.5 km/l (about 29.4 mpg) in 1995 to 14.3 km/l (about 33.6 mpg) in March 2002, an increase of 14.4 percent. The goal by 2010 is to be at 15.1 km/l or about 35.5 miles per gallon.

In the fight against global warming a lot has been said about fuel cell vehicles. This is a developing technology which Japanese manufacturers are aggressively pursuing. While not directly subsidizing the application of fuel cell technology the Japanese Government is encouraging its development through research and development and through demonstration programs of the vehicles and the infrastructure. Under the vehicle demonstration program automakers test their fuel cell vehicles annually on public road to collect data on performance, fuel economy, and the use of fueling stations. Meanwhile, the government is subsidizing the construction of five stations with hydrogen refueling facilities. The purpose of these programs is to determine energy savings effects and environmental benefits, to raise public awareness and to identify bottlenecks in the development process that can be addressed either through government action or further technological development. The current goal is to have 50,000 fuel cell vehicles on the road by 2010.

The Japanese Government and the manufacturers are also attacking global warming and pollution problems through the development and application of Intelligent Transport Systems and efforts to change driver behavior. Navigation systems combined with electronic notification of traffic congestion is but one example. According to a study of the Japan Automobile Research Institute increasing vehicle speed from 10km/hr to 20km/h (that is 6-12 MPH) improves fuel efficiency by as much as 60 percent. Driving habits also make a difference. JAMA, for example, has an eight-point driver education campaign which encourages drivers to check air pressure, avoid sudden starts, minimize idling and maintain constant speed.

Before concluding let me say a word on vehicle disposal. This is a huge issue particular for nation with limited land area and approximately five million vehicles being deregistered annually. The Japanese Government and industry together have been working to increase the recycling rates from about 85 percent of gross vehicle weight to 95 percent by 2015. These efforts were formalized and developed further under Japan's Automobile Recycling Law passed in July 2002 and effective January 2005. Recycling involves a wide range of new technologies and methodologies starting from the design stage of production through the life of the vehicle. The effort not only involves increasing the recyclable rate but also reducing the shredder residue from the remaining percent. Shredder residue amount to about 700,000 tons a year. The goal is to reduce shredder residue by 70 percent in terms of weight by 2015 through the application of advanced technologies. JAMA is taking an active role in this effort through the Promotion Center for Automobile Recycling established by JAMA and eight other auto related organization in the year 2000.

Conclusion

I have only just touched on but a few of the challenges, developments and initiatives being taken in Japan to ensure a sustainable mobility for Japan. I have not discussed the individual company activities or the specific application of these new technologies into specific vehicles. These efforts have received considerable publicity worldwide and you will see and hear much about these in the next couple of days. What should be clear however are two things. One is that the road to sustainability will not be met without an intense dedication to the development and application of cutting edge technology. Secondly the effort will involve not just the automobile industry but rather a broad awareness and involvement of society including government, industry, engineers, scientists, consumers, drivers, educators and, last but not least, initiatives such as the one we are participating in today.

Thank you very much for your attention.