Sanitation and Sustainable Development in Japan

The paper outlines that the sanitation has long been “beneath the radar” on the development agendas of governments worldwide. Aside from the massive investment requirements for putting in place sanitation interventions (both structural and non-structural measures) to benefit the community, the sanitation sector, in general, is unfairly classified as unappealing compared with other infrastructure subsectors such as power generation, transportation, and water supply. Too many governments are driven to achieve economic development and yet invest very little in promoting health and environmental conservation, considering how these two are strongly linked toward a country’s economic well-being.