At least a part of Japan’s unfolding asbestos disease tragedy might have been averted if the asbestos industry had not successfully blocked a ban on the deadly fibre 13 years ago. The proposed bill in 1992 would have banned the use, sale and manufacture of asbestos products. According to the daily Mainichi Shimbun, lobbying by the Japan Asbestos Association, a domestic asbestos industry group which said the dangers of asbestos had been exaggerated, led to enough opposition by lawmakers that the proposed bill was abandoned without being discussed even once. The association also said that alternatives to asbestos, long used as a fire retardant, would be expensive and that their safety had not been adequately verified, the paper added.

• Japan Asbestos Group Lobbying Delayed Laws
  Source: Planetark, 18/7/2005.
• Japan's asbestos time bomb
  Source: The Guardian, 27/7/2005.