Abstract: Japan has constituted perfect water pollution criminal legislation.Chinese water pollution criminal legislation is only provided in principle.This legislation has many shortcomings,for example,it lacks standalone accuse and effective criminal penalty,and the punishment is in a narrow range,which makes it difficulty to implement criminal sanctions to punish the water pollution crime.Learning from Japan,we should perfect Chinese water pollution criminal legislation in the following ways:setting standalone accuse of water pollution with two forms of criminaldeliberateness and negligence;confirming punishment range;setting potential damage accuse,imposing a more severe penalty,and making use of pecuniary penalty,and so on.

Key words: water pollution crime, serious environmental pollution accident crime, potential damage offense, pecuniary penalty