Judgment of Class-2 projects (Screening)
The procedure for deciding whether EIA should be applied to projects is called“screening”.
In the Environmental Impact Assessment Law, whether EIA should be applied to a project is
determined in accordance with the scale of the project. However, the extent of the environmental
impacts does not necessarily depend only on the project scale. For instance, even though a project near
a school, a hospital, an intake point for drinking-water production, or a reclamation project filling a
wetland inhabited by many wild birds, are small in scale, these projects could have serious impacts on
the environment.
Therefore, the decision on whether EIA should be applied to a Class-2 project is made individually
on a case-by-case basis.
The judgment is made by the authorizing agency in accordance with the judgment criteria (for
example, decisions on road projects are made by the Ministry of Infrastructure, Land and Transport;
decisions on power plant projects by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, etc.). In making the
judgment, opinions from the prefectural governor who is well-acquainted with the local situation should
be taken into consideration.
Examples of projects that are small in scale but are required to be assessed.
Criteria associated with the nature of the project
- A thermoelectric power plant using fuel causing more serious air pollution
- A road that is a part of a comprehensive project, which could cause serious environmental impacts.
Criteria associated with the regional situation
- A dam near the nesting ground of golden eagles
- A project within a National Park
- A road passing through an area where the concentration of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) exceeds the
ambientenvironmental quality standard.