Japan has periodically suffered from severe
water shortages, particularly since the rapid
economic and population growth that
began in the 1960’s. Government policies,
however, combined with supporting
institutional and legal frameworks, as well
as enforcement, seem to have effectively
addressed the problem. Hopefully the
lessons from Japan will provide some useful
insights for other countries, such as China,
that face similar water scarcity problems in
the context of rapid economic and
population growth.