Nowhere is the connection between industrial development and environmental and human health deterioration more graphically demonstrated than at Yokkaichi, Japan. An international port located on the Ise Bay, Yokkaichi was a major textile center by 1897. The shipping business shifted to nearby Nagoya in 1907, and Yokkaichi filled in its coastal lowlands in a successful bid to attract modern industries, especially chemical processing, steel production, and oil and gasoline refining.

Spurred by both the World War II demand and the postwar recovery effort, several more petrochemical companies were added through the 1950s, creating an oil refinery complex called the Yokkaichi Kombinato. In 1959 it began 24-hour operations, and the sparkle of hundreds of electric lights became known as the "million-dollar night view." Although citizens took pride in the growing industrial complex, their enthusiasm waned when air pollution and noise pollution created human health problems. As early as 1953, the central...