State Responsibility for Transboundary Pollution and Its Assumption: The Case of Japan's Discharge of Nuclear Sewage

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In recent years, the unilateral decision and behavior of Japanese government in discharging Fukushima nuclear-contaminated water without any guarantee of safety and reliability, despite the international communitys skepticism , have aroused the concern and anger of the people of the world. The act of discharging the nuclear-contaminated water was carried out under the authorization and control of the Government of Japan, which is contrary to the obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Convention on Nuclear Safety and other conventions to which Japan is a party, so it should be subject to the corresponding national responsibility. Regarding the assumption of responsibility, as the strength of the States themselves mainly promotes international legal obligations and responsibilities, Japan should withdraw its wrongful practice and assume its corresponding duties and responsibilities as soon as possible. The ocean makes the world's countries closely connected, and all countries' interests are closely intertwined, so it is necessary to build a national responsibility mechanism for transboundary pollution under the framework of international law. Based on the existing achievements, this paper discusses and analyzes the national responsibility for transboundary pollution and its assumption and the construction of the national responsibility mechanism, taking Japan's discharge of nuclear-contaminated water as an example in order to strive to provide helpful theoretical support for judicial practice.