Several Regulatory Standards Issued By The Japanese Authorities

Recently, the Japanese authorities announced several items.

New regulatory standards for the use and care labelling of harmful chemicals will come into effect in 2016.

These regulations cover a wide range of products, including clothings,

Pajamas, towels, bedding, Rugs and so on.

The Japanese textile manufacturers in Ningbo should ring the alarm bell early and avoid being passive in future export, thus causing unnecessary trade losses.

Release new safety standards for children's garments

In December 21, 2015, the Japanese Standard Association (JSA) officially released the first child clothing safety standard JISL4129, which is also a voluntary safety standard.

The standard issued a draft as early as June 23, 2014 to collect comments and prepare for the implementation of new safety requirements.

JISL4129 aims to minimize the probability of accidents caused by rope pulling on children's clothing.

At the same time, the standard made corresponding provisions for two different age groups of children (1-7 and 7-13 years old).

Publication of azo dye limitation for textiles

Recently, Japan's Ministry of health and labour (MHLW) amended the long established law No. 112nd to limit the formaldehyde content of all textiles and clothing imported into the Japanese market, and to place azo compounds as one of the mandatory limiting harmful substances.

The new regulation restricts the azo dyes that may decompose and release any 24 harmful aromatic amines.

The threshold value of each aromatic amine should not exceed 30 mg / kg by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

The amendment Ordinance will come into force on April 1, 2016.

Adoption of new nursing labelling symbols

The Japanese Consumer Affairs Office (CAA) has approved the adoption of the new nursing Labelling Standard JISL0001-2014 "textile nursing labelling symbol" (TextileCareLabellingCodeUsingSymbols), which will replace the existing nursing label standard JISL0217-1995 according to the household products Quality Labeling Act (HouseholdProductsQualityLabellingLaw).

The new standard of nursing signs increased from 22 to 41. They were classified into 7 labels, namely, washing, bleaching, turning drying, natural drying, ironing, dry cleaning and wet cleaning, replacing the original 6 types of labelling symbols: washing, bleaching, ironing, dry cleaning, drying and drying.

The standard will be coordinated with the ISO international nursing labelling system ISO3758 and will take effect from December 1, 2016.

After the effective date, textiles must be labelled with new care labels to be accepted by the Japanese market.

Textiles have always been an important pillar industry of Ningbo's exports and played an important role in Ningbo's economic growth.

In 2015, Ningbo port exported a total of 232 billion 800 million yuan of textile and clothing products, second only to mechanical and electrical products.

As the third largest export market in Ningbo, according to statistics, the number of textile and apparel products exported to Ningbo port in 2015 exceeded US $20 billion, accounting for 10% of the total exports of the industry, but showed a downward trend compared with the same period last year.

In recent years, problems related to drawstring, dyestuff and clothing label have been frequent, and become the high point of export textile and garment disqualification.

Last year alone, 106 of the textile and clothing products exported to Europe and the United States originated from the recall recall incidents caused by improper locations such as the neck or waist, and now Japan has gradually made harsh demands on this issue.

In the face of the relevant standards and regulations that will soon take effect in Japan, experts remind relevant enterprises to carefully interpret the requirements of the new regulations, make timely improvements in comparison with the existing production and manufacturing processes, and cut down the length of the drawstring and label requirements, so that they must be tailored according to the requirements of the specifications, improve the self inspection ability of the finished products, and ensure that the toxic and harmful chemical substances are within the limit.