Environment Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said Wednesday that the newly created Environment Ministry will have to "battle and evolve" to push its agenda, and outlined a few areas slated for special attention in 2001.
Kawaguchi made the statement during a "town meeting on the role of the new ministry" in Tokyo.
In the second town meeting of her tenure, Kawaguchi said steps to resolve polychlorinated biphenyl pollution and air pollution are high on the ministry's agenda and that legislation pertaining to both issues will be submitted during the next Diet session.
"The role of the Environment Ministry is to help to create a new society that differs from our current mass-production, mass-consumption, mass-disposal type," Kawaguchi said to over 700 participants who packed the Iino Hall in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward.