Japan METI Energy Efficiency Japan Guide for Energy Efficiency

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) is responsible for designing energy-saving policies for the economy. Within METI, the Natural Resources and Energy Agency (ANRE) is responsible for ensuring stable energy supply, promoting efficient energy use, and regulating the electricity and other energy industries.

The Japanese Energy Conservation Law ('Law on the Reasonable Use of Energy') establishes a requirement for manufacturers of machinery, equipment, and other items, known as the 'Leader Program' (the Program). This is Japan's main plan to improve the energy efficiency of energy consuming products, which encourages competition among companies by setting energy efficiency targets for the next 3 to 10 years. This plan is mandatory for companies (manufacturers and importers of specific products) to achieve efficiency targets before the target year. Require manufacturers to achieve such targets for all products in each category within each predetermined target year (using weighted average method).

The plan initially covered 11 projects in 1998 and has now expanded to 31 projects. In the future, the 'leader' standard will be reviewed to further expand the number of products. The current target products are: passenger cars, trucks, air conditioners, refrigerators, electric freezers, rice cookers, microwaves, lighting equipment, electric toilet seats, televisions, cassette recorders, DVD recorders, computers, disk drives, copiers, space heaters, gas stoves, gas water heaters, oil water heaters, vending machines, transformers, routers, switch units, AC motors, LED lights, window sashes (windows), multi pane glass, multifunctional equipment, printers, electric water heaters (heat pumps), and insulation materials.

Label requirements:

According to the Energy Conservation Law, energy efficiency labels for designated products are mandatory. The label must include the product name, model, energy efficiency ratio, and power/fuel consumption.

In this case, the label does not require providing the product's energy performance parameters as a relative comparison with other products, but rather the achievement rate relative to the 'leader' goal. The labels affixed to the product indicate the compliance rate of energy efficiency and energy-saving standards. The label includes the expected electricity cost and 5-star rating, representing the relative position of the product in terms of energy-saving performance in the market.

There are two types of labels:

Energy saving labels are a labeling program designed for manufacturers to indicate energy-saving performance under the 'Leader Program'. This label is displayed in the manual or the product itself.

This plan covers 21 categories of products: air conditioners, fluorescent lighting equipment, televisions, refrigerators, electric freezers, space heaters, gas cooking utensils, gas water heaters, oil heaters, electric toilet seats, computers, disk devices, later transformers, microwaves, rice cookers, DVD routers and switching devices, electric water heaters, self ballasted LED lights, AC motors.

The unified energy-saving label is another labeling program applicable to retailers, which is a multi-level energy-saving performance evaluation scheme based on the achievement rate under the 'Leader' program. This plan covers six categories of products (air conditioning, television, refrigerator, electric freezer, electric toilet seat, and fluorescent lighting equipment). For the other 10 products not covered by the 'Unified Energy saving Label', the 'Simplified Unified Energy saving Label' will be displayed.

Example of energy-saving label:

统一节能标签示例：

As a recognized part of the Japanese market, office equipment manufacturers can also comply with the International Energy Star program. This is an international energy-saving system for office equipment, such as computers, monitors, printers, fax machines, copiers, scanners, etc, MFP， Digital printer, computer server.

According to the agreement between the two governments, Japan's International Energy Star program has been working since October 1995. This program is a voluntary registration system.

Example of Energy Star Label: