Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry updates energy saving label ― Establishing a new mini label

Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry updates energy saving label ― Establishing a new mini label

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and Agency for Natural Resources and Energy (ANRE) summarized the results of the study on July 10th for updating the unified energy-saving label at the Subcommittee on Energy Conservation / Judgment Standard Working Group for Retailers’ Labeling Program of the “Advisory Committee for Energy and Natural Resources” (advisory body of the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry). In addition to reducing duplication and changing to simple design, METI and ANRE will newly establish a mini label which can provide information regardless of product size and even in limited space such as website. Color scheme is also considered to ensure visibility for various people. The ANRE will proceed with public comment (invitation for public comment ) and legal system reforms. Considering the label replacement burden on retailers, the policy is to set a grace period of about one year before changing to a new label.

The unified energy-saving label system started in 2006, and has displayed energy-saving performance of products and annual electricity charges. So far, it has not only contributed information to consumers and selection of energy conservation equipment, but also fulfilled a certain function including the effect on the manufacturer. It has been decided to update to a better label from the perspective of following three items. (1) Promotion of improvement on energy conservation performance for manufacturers (2) Persuit of consumers to select energy conservation equipment (3) Ensuring opportunities for retailers to provide energy conservation information.

There was concern that the labels used to be a discontinuous multi-step evaluation standard of five steps, which could affect the development of manufacturer’s product  and curb the improvement in energy conservation performance of equipment. The new label encourages the improvement on energy conservation performance for equipment by dividing the five steps into finer