Objective. The objective of this study is to clarify the effect of consumers’ final demand in a metropolitan region on other regions by performing an interregional waste input–output analysis. We investigated the effect of consumption activities in Tokyo as a case study. We constructed the interregional waste input–output table for Tokyo for the year 2000 by using four main tables and data: the input–output table for Tokyo, the waste input–output table, the environmental input–output table, and inter-prefectural waste shipments data. Using the constructed table, we estimated the effect of consumption activities in Tokyo on the production value, value added, waste emissions, CO₂ emissions, and landfill consumption in other regions.
Results and Discussion. The estimation results showed that the effects of consumers’ final demand in Tokyo on other regions were not considerable, which is about 2 % of the total induced effect in other regions both environmentally and economically. However, these effects were not negligible either. The consumers’ final demand for Tokyo induced CO₂ emission which is 13.1 million ton-CO₂ in other regions, and this value is almost the same as that in Tokyo. The increase in the landfill consumption in other regions was about 1.2 million m³, which is about 2.5 times greater than that in Tokyo, owing to the effect of consumers’ final demand in Tokyo on other regions. On the other hand, the production value and value added in other regions owing to the consumers’ final demand in Tokyo was found to be 15.3 trillion and 7.0 trillion yen, respectively; the production value is half of that of Tokyo and the value added is a third of that of Tokyo.
Conclusions. Although the consumption activities in Tokyo produced economic benefits in other regions as well, the increase in the environmental loads owing to such activities was considerably greater than the increase in the economic benefits. Hence, it is important to discuss not only obvious environmental loads but also the hidden environmental loads owing to the consumption activities in metropolitan regions.