[Regulatory Update] Japan's Cabinet approves amendment to the EIA Act Enforcement Order — criteria for "rebuilding projects" set for thermal, geothermal and wind plants; effective 1 April 2027
On 9 October 2026, Japan's Ministry of the Environment announced that the Cabinet had approved, on the same day, two cabinet orders: one amending the Enforcement Order of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Act, and one setting the enforcement date of the Act's amendment (Act No. 73 of 2025, enacted in June 2025). The amended Act provides that an operator carrying out a "rebuilding project" — removing or decommissioning an existing structure and building a structure of the same kind in the same or an adjacent area — prepares a rebuilding version of the planning-stage environmental consideration document. The amendment to the Act (the provisions under the main text of Article 1 of its Supplementary Provisions) and the Enforcement Order amendment both take effect on 1 April 2027. No promulgation date was indicated at the time of the Cabinet decision. A new Article 7-2 of the Enforcement Order covers thermal, geothermal and wind power plants. The adjacent area extends up to 300 metres from the boundary of the area where the existing structure is located. The ratio of the output of the new plant or generating equipment to that of the existing one must fall within 2.0 for thermal, 1.3 for geothermal and 1.1 for wind. The Ministry states that the area where the existing structure is located is the plant site for thermal, the wind turbine installation locations for wind, and the generating-equipment site for geothermal, and that wind output is assessed on total rated output. This is to be clarified later in notices or guidelines. Other project types remain under the conventional procedure. The amendment also brings dam reconstruction within the scope of the Act. A Class 1 project is one where the reservoir area after reconstruction is at least 100 hectares and increases by at least 50 hectares. A Class 2 project (excluding Class 1) is one where it is at least 75 hectares and increases by at least 37.5 hectares. Requirements by type of project owner also apply.
Editor's View
Under the rebuilding scheme, an operator whose project meets the criteria prepares a rebuilding consideration document in place of the conventional planning-stage document. The scheme dispenses with surveys of the project area's surroundings, on the basis that the location does not change significantly, and instead requires a description of environmental considerations for the new structure in light of the existing project's environmental impacts. Meeting the criteria does not remove the planning-stage procedure or the opportunity for the Minister of the Environment to give an opinion; procedures from the scoping document stage onward are the same as usual. The order sets criteria for only three project types. In its response to public comments, the Ministry said the figures reflect past rebuilding cases and the minor-modification criteria, and should be reviewed as technology advances. The measures were approved by Cabinet on 9 October 2026 and take effect on 1 April 2027; how they apply to individual projects, including the definition of the area where an existing structure is located, depends on notices and guidelines still to be issued.