| TOP |
| 5th Report of Market Access Ombudsman Council (March 17, 1998) |
1. Complainant: Tokyo Chamber of Commerce
2. Ministry concerned: Ministry of Labour
3. Complaint:
The procedures for obtaining authorization of models pertaining to the explosion-prevention standards when importing and using electric machines and appliances are complicated. The following measures should thus be considered.
(1) Accept products that meet the standards of the EU and various other countries.
(2) Accept the inspection data of overseas government agencies and the like and the data prepared by overseas manufacturers.
(3) Simply the application procedure.
4. Corresponding Policy of the Ministries concerned:
(1) In this case, as referred to in the "Report on the Third Market Access Meeting" (March 1996), the necessary investigations and reviews are currently underway.
(2) In terms of accepting the inspection data of overseas government agencies, we are striving to both actively designate overseas government inspection agencies that have not already been designated and publicize this designation system.
Moreover, according to the complainant, accepting the data prepared by overseas manufacturers would mean accepting the English-language versions of the documents that must accompany the application for authorization, such as structural diagrams of the machinery for the pertinent models, without having them translated into Japanese. Even from an international perspective, submitting application documents that are in the language of the accepting country (for Japan, this would of course be Japanese) is simply a matter of course.
(3) So that this application procedure will be handled promptly by the authorizing agencies, related consultations are being made available and application guidance prepared. In future, by holding explanatory meetings and the like on this guidance, we wish to guide the authorizing agencies in expediting the application process for applicants.
5. Remarks
The complainant's opinion is as follows.
"I understand that this is the policy as it now stands."