Standards Administration Policy in Japan Between the 1980s and the 2000s

This chapter considers the Japanese government’s initiative for standards and certifications from a historical perspective to explore the significance of how and why it came to be seen as an important component of the nation’s economic growth policy in the latter half of the 1990s. Back then, a slowdown in growth was beginning to become a norm of the Japanese economy and how to achieve economic growth emerged as a critical policy issue. The Japanese government had to grope for ways to ignite growth, while continuing to pursue deregulationDeregulation to minimize government involvement. The Ministry of International Trade and IndustryMinistry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) (MITI) was required to support innovative business activities. Having shifted away from its conventional industrial policy, the MITI was trying to find ways to support the development of business strategies by utilizing standards as a policy tool, recognizing that the standardization of competitive products can further enhance their value, a practice that had been in place for some time in other advanced economies. However, the government’s initiative to promote standardization at an international level is still ongoing. Meanwhile, it has been found that the social significance of such standardization efforts will likely increase in the areas of welfare and environmental protection.