JAPAN Law and Practice Contributed by: Junichi Ikeda, Takayuki Fujii, Satoyuki Nakano and Tomoaki Kitaguchi, Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu
dents, NITE generally publishes limited details of the accident. Inspection and Labelling Requirements to Prevent Accidents Due to Deterioration Under the CPSA, consumer products that have a high likelihood of causing a serious accident due to degradation over time – ie, oil water heaters and oil bath boilers – are called “specified main - tenance products” . For these specified main - tenance products, a manufacturer or importer must set: • a standard period of use during which there will be no safety issue if used under the standard conditions of use, which is called the “design standard use period” ; and • an inspection period to prevent injury due to age-related deterioration once the design standard use period has expired. The manufacturer or the importer must place labelling that shows, among other information, the design standard use period and the time of commencement and expiration of the inspec - tion period. The manufacturer or the importer must send a notification to the user of the speci - fied maintenance product when the end of the design standard use period is approaching. Fur - thermore, when requested within the inspection period, the manufacturer or the importer must conduct an inspection of the specified mainte - nance product. For consumer products that do not have a high likelihood of causing a serious accident but have a high volume of accident reports due to deterioration over time, such as electric fans and air conditioners, warning labels on deterioration and the design standard period of use must be affixed. In addition to the CPSA, some consumer prod - ucts may be subject to other laws, such as the
Electrical Appliances and Materials Safety Act, the Gas Business Act and the Act on the Secur - ing of Safety and the Optimisation of Transaction of Liquefied Petroleum Gas. 1.2 Regulatory Authorities for Product Safety No regulator has general jurisdiction over prod - uct safety issues in Japan. When the CAA was established, jurisdiction over existing legislation involving the safety of the lives and health of people remained with the relevant ministries that then had jurisdiction. Due to this arrangement, the CAA has limited power to regulate business operators with respect to consumer safety mat - ters. However, serious product accidents must be reported by manufacturers and importers to the Secretary General of the CAA under the CPSA. One of the main regulators for product safety in Japan is the METI. As the METI has jurisdic - tion over the CPSA, under which most consum - er products are regulated, the METI has broad jurisdiction over consumer products. A ban on the sale of a specific consumer prod - uct can be imposed by the competent author - ity. For example, if certain specified products fail to conform to the technical requirements established by the competent authority and the competent authority finds doing so particularly necessary to prevent harm to the lives or health of general consumers, the competent authority can prohibit the manufacturer and the importer of the products from affixing the PSC mark on the products for a period of not more than one year. This effectively results in a ban on the sale of the specific consumer products, as no person engaged in the manufacture, import or sale of the specific consumer products may sell them, or display such products for the purpose of sell -
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