. /.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/TBT/N/JPN/109
23 December 2003
(03-6721)
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:English
NOTIFICATION
The following notification is being circulated in accordance with Article 10.6.
1. Member to Agreement notifying:   JAPAN
If applicable, name of local government involved (Articles 3.2 and 7.2):           
2. Agency responsible:   Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry
Name and address (including telephone and fax numbers, e-mail and web-site
addresses, if available) of  agency or authority designated to handle comments
regarding the notification shall be indicated if different from above:           
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [   ], 2.10.1 [    ], 5.6.2 [ X ], 5.7.1 [    ], other:           
4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwis e national tariff heading.
ICS numbers may be provided in addition, where applicable):   Industrial or mineral
products (excepting drugs, agricultural chemicals, chemical fertilizers, silk yarn and
agricultural products)
5. Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document:   Amendments of
the“Industrial Standardization Law”
6. Description of content:   (1) Reform of Japanese Industrial Standards (JIS) Mark
certification system;  the JIS Mark certification scheme, a voluntary conformity assessment
scheme, has been conducted only by competent ministers or substitutional bodies of the
minister and the scope of certification has been limited to items designated by the
competent ministers.  In this amendment, we will introduce an internationally harmonizedthird party certification scheme which is based on ISO/IEC guides, and will expand the
scope of certification up to all sorts of items covered by the law.
(2) Reform of Laboratory Accreditation Program; the scope of the Japan National
Laboratory Accreditation (JNLA) program has been limited to part of JISs excluding the
standards used for JIS Mark certification scheme.  In this amendment, we will expand the
scope up to all sorts of JISs describing testing methods.
7. Objective and rationale, including the na ture of urgent problems where applicable:  To
develop an internationally harmonized conformity assessment system which is based on
international guides/standards, thereby facilitating international trade.
8. Relevant documents:   These documents will appear in “KAMPO”, which is official
government gazette, when adopted.G/TBT/N/JPN/109
Page 2
9. Proposed date of adoption:  Not yet determined
Proposed date of entry into force:  October 2004
10. Final date for comments:   20 February 2004
11. Texts available from:  National enquiry point [  X ] or address, telephone and fax
numbers, e-mail and web-site addresses, if available of the other body:
Contact : Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry
                Conformity Assessment Division
1-3-1 Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8901 JAPAN
Tel:  +81-3-3501-9473
Fax:  +81-3-3580-8598
Email:  newjis@meti.go.jp