By Frank Piller, General Manager Products at TÜV Rheinland Japan After basic regulations for pharmaceuticals and medical devices had remained unchanged for a long time in Japan, the country enacted the Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Act or PMD Act in November 2014. Officially called “The Act on Securing the Quality, Efficacy and Safety of Pharmaceuticals, Medical Devices, Regenerative and […]
By Hiroyuki Arie, General Manager, Business Stream Systems at TÜV Rheinland Japan Fire, typhoon and earthquake resistance of buildings has long been of paramount importance in Japan. This is partly because for a long period of time, the majority of structures were lightly made of wood. If a house caught fire in the Edo period (1603–1868), firefighters often chose […]
By Hiroyuki Arie, General Manager, Business Stream Systems at TÜV Rheinland Japan Twenty years have passed since the 1996 establishment of ISO 14001, the standard for environmental management systems (EMSs). By now, there are over 25,000 ISO 14001-certified organizations in Japan. This is second only to the number in China, and demonstrates that the concept of the environmental management […]
By Hiroyuki Arie, General Manager, Business Stream Systems at TÜV Rheinland Japan On Nov. 28, I was working on this article about cybersecurity in Japan, when shocking news spread quickly across the nation. Major news media, including Kyodo News, simultaneously reported that the Ministry of Defense (MOD) had suffered a cyberattack. Ministry sources announced that a hacker had penetrated […]
by Kazushi Arima, General Manager, Mobility at TÜV Rheinland Japan With their large output and long service life, lithium ion batteries power a broad variety of products from smartphones to electric vehicles. At the same time, there are frequent reports of safety problems that come with these batteries. Just recently, a South Korean smartphone manufacturer has garnered much unwanted […]
By Ramesh Nadarajah, Vice President Industrial Services Asia-Pacific at TÜV Rheinland Asia-Pacific Renewable energy is one of the most important factors in the transformation of Japan’s energy mix by 2030. This article provides a closer look into what has happened in the area of wind energy, one of the most promising renewable energy sources, and tries to identify some of […]
By Frank Piller, General Manager Products at TÜV Rheinland Japan Demand response and virtual power plants (VPP) are expected to play a crucial role in the future, as outlined in METI’s latest Innovative Energy Strategy whitepaper. This article continues our discussion started here. Communication Standards for Demand Response In May 2013, a METI-sponsored workshop established the “Demand Response Interface […]
By Frank Piller, General Manager Products at TÜV Rheinland Japan In recent years, the Japanese government has vigorously promoted energy conservation through various actions, including installing the feed-in tariff system for renewable energy, deregulating electricity and promoting the Smart House concept. For its part, in 2015 the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has formulated its Long-term Energy […]
By Frank Piller, General Manager Products at TÜV Rheinland Japan Protecting the environment, conserving energy and reducing carbon emissions are global challenges. In Japan too, various sectors, including the government, are aggressively addressing these difficult issues. The Japanese government has recently introduced a variety of measures to reduce energy consumption at home, in order to promote energy conservation by […]
By Frank Piller, General Manager Products at TÜV Rheinland Japan Renewable energy. Energy efficiency. Energy conservation. Energy storage. Hotly discussed topics all of them – indicating that energy has become one of the most important issues of our time. The Paris Agreement at COP21 and the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference last November are evidence of global momentum. […]
By Hiroyuki Arie, General Manager, Business Stream Systems at TÜV Rheinland Japan The year 2016 started with a number of news items that remind us of the importance of safety and quality management. From the tour bus incident and repeated food scandals we learned that we should always use a process approach to ensure safety and quality and limit […]
By Yoshihiro Sugita, General Manager, Industrial Service at TÜV Rheinland Japan Industrial accidents in Japan According to recent statistics by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, the number of industrial accident fatalities is decreasing constantly, except for the extraordinary rise in 2011 because of the Great Kanto Earthquake and the following nuclear power plant accident. The number reported […]
by Kazushi Arima, General Manager, Mobility at TÜV Rheinland Japan Research on electric cars In 2011, TÜV Rheinland organized a global opinion survey about electric cars. The result showed that people are generally positive in their acceptance of and expectations toward so-called e-mobility. More than half of the people surveyed in 10 out of the 12 countries studied expressed […]
