Environment Minister Yoshiaki Harada announces a plan on June 3 to enact a law charging for plastic shopping bags by next year. (Ichiro Matsuo)

The Japanese government has announced legislation to show it is serious about tackling the plastic pollution problem, but the measure is behind the times not only around the world but also within Japan itself.

Environment Minister Yoshiaki Harada on June 3 said a law would be enacted before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics that would require retail outlets to charge customers for plastic shopping bags.

The announcement came as Japan is preparing to host the Group of 20 summit later this month in Osaka.

Harada will chair a meeting in Nagano Prefecture from June 15 of the G-20 ministers in charge of energy and environmental issues, and he apparently wants to show his counterparts that Japan is doing its part to reduce disposable plastics.

However, 21 of Japan’s 47 prefectures already have some kind of measure in place that charges for plastic shopping bags.

Moreover, 127 nations have laws on the books about plastic shopping bags, with 83 banning the free distribution of such bags, according to the United Nations Environment Program. Forty countries have outright or conditional bans on plastic bags.

According to Naoki Kubo, executive director of the Plastic Packaging Recycling Council, which consists of plastic product manufacturers and retailers, about 200,000 tons of plastic shopping bags are distributed annually in Japan.

That figure represents only about 2 percent of the 9 million or so tons of plastics disposed of every year.

But Harada explained that because plastic shopping bags are used so often by consumers, targeting such a visible product could generate awareness among ordinary citizens about plastics and the environment.

Major supermarket chains have already started charging for plastic shopping bags. More customers are bringing their own bags to shop, and retail outlets have reported a sharp increase in the number of consumers refusing charged plastic bags.

Aeon Co. started charging customers for plastic shopping bags at about 400 large outlets in November 2013. It has gradually expanded the practice to other stores in its group and is aiming for 2,500 outlets by the end of February.

A company official said about 80 percent of customers now say they don’t want the plastic bags offered by the outlets.

Likewise, Seven & i Holdings Co., which started charging for plastic shopping bags at its large supermarkets in 2012, said 73 percent of customers say they do not need the bags.

The company aims to reduce to zero the use of plastic shopping bags at all of its outlets, including the Seven-Eleven Japan Co. convenience stores, by 2030.

The government’s planned law to charge customers for plastic bags will raise other issues over how to handle bags made from bioplastics or biodegradable plastic, which eventually decomposes in the environment.

Experts said these plastics should still be collected because they could flow into the ocean and exacerbate the environmental problem.

Kubo of the Plastic Packaging Recycling Council said a different method is needed for disposing of bags and other products made from bioplastics and biodegradable plastic.

Yachiyo Nakai, a vice chair of a national citizens network pushing for the reuse, recycling and reduction of containers and packaging materials, said: “The world is moving toward an outright ban on plastic shopping bags. If a law is to be passed charging for such bags, it should also contain language indicating an eventual ban in the not-too-distant future, such as 2025.

“The government should also establish a target for what percentage of customers would refuse the shopping bags once a charge is in place,” Nakai said.

(This article was written by Ichiro Matsuo, Akemi Kanda and Shimpei Doi.)