Abstract
The asbestos industry has been moving plants overseas (primarily to developing countries) to take advantage of locally inexpensive labor and weak regulatory frameworks for worker safety. Using the transplantation of the asbestos industry from Japan to South Korea, this chapter explores the “exportation” of the asbestos industry and associated asbestos hazards and harm.
The chapter first sheds light on the history of asbestos industry relations between Japan and South Korea, and drawing from three case studies of Japanese companies, then explores the transfer or “exportation” of the industry’s manufacturing processes and the accompanying health problems associated with asbestos exposure. Their decisions were motivated by the conclusion that overseas operations would be able to enjoy reduced operating and labor costs as long as the benefits of asbestos continued to win societal acceptance in Japan. They withdrew those operations once their basis for establishment had been lost, i.e., after the benefits of asbestos had been rejected by society, and the expected savings in operating costs, etc., were no longer available.
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Notes
- 1.
Notes
1.Based on a report by the South Korean Institute on Workplace Environmental Health, compiled from Geological Research Institute documentation.
- 2.
.Based on interviews conducted on September 5, 2007, by Park Sang-Gue, affiliated journalist to Busan MBC Broadcasting, and Prof. Dong mug Kang of Busan University Medical School.
- 3.
.The local interview-based survey above, and the Kang report delivered at the International Asbestos Conference in Celebration of the 20th Anniversary of BANJAN, held November 23–24, 2007, in Yokohama.
- 4.
4.Toyo Business Directory (Korea Business Directory), Tokyo: Toyo Keizai Nippo-sha, various issues.
- 5.
5.Japanese Multinationals Facts and Figures. Toyo Keizai Inc., various issues.
- 6.
.Based on September 6, 2007, interviews with former Jeil Chemical workers.
- 7.
.Timeline section on Jeil E & S home page, http://www.jeilens.co.kr/Eng/company/history.htm. Accessed November 11, 2007.
- 8.
.Osaka Prefectural Government, Factory Directory in Osaka Prefecture Handbook of Factories in Osaka Prefecture, various issues.
- 9.
.Based on an interview-based survey of former asbestos factory owners conducted on March 7, 2007, at the Makino Citizens Center in Sennan, Osaka.
- 10.
.Research and Statistics Department, Minister’s Secretariat, Ministry of International Trade and Industry ed., Yearbook of Building Materials and Statistics, various issues, Tokyo: Investigation Commission of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry. Crocidolite is listed here as “blue.”
- 11.
.Although totaling around 90 000 metric tons in 1995, annual imports of raw asbestos had fallen to approximately 30 000 tons by 1998, and continued a downward trend thereafter. Ministry of Employment and Labor of Korea (2007). “Measures for Asbestos Control.”
- 12.
.At its peak, annual asbestos consumption reached 300 000 tons in Japan, but later declined to about 100 000 tons by the second half of the 1990s (Morinaga 2006:21).
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Minami, S. (2011). Asbestos Industry Transplants from Japan to South Korea. In: Miyamoto, K., Morinaga, K., Mori, H. (eds) Asbestos Disaster. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-53915-5_8
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