Our roles

The Japanese Industrial Standards Committee (JISC), Japan's national standardization body, plays a central role in developing standards in Japan covering a wide range of products and technologies from robots to pictograms. JISC is also responsible for Japan's growing contribution to setting international standards through its work with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).

The purpose and scope of "standards" have rapidly changed in recent years, driven by technological innovation and evolving social demands on corporate activities. Standardization supports innovation and has a direct impact on people's lives and living environments.

As a global hub for science and technology, Japan is committed to promoting standardization and contributing to global development in these fields. JISC proactively participates in initiatives to deal with new challenges, most notably in three areas: interoperability, care of the elderly and electric power infrastructure.

JISC's New Challenges

[ Interoperability ]

In the age of the Internet of Things (IoT), the role of standardization extends to assuring interoperability, which enables computer systems or software to exchange information seamlessly across borders. Japan is actively promoting standardization in the following two areas. The first is electric power systems. JISC made a proposal to the IEC/Technical Committee (TC) 120 in April 2016 for standardizing the safety performance evaluation requirements for "Electrical Energy Storage Systems" and currently leads this standardization activity in the IEC. This is a key technology to promote the use of renewable energy, achieve CO ₂ reduction and for Smart Grids. The second is smart manufacturing, an area in which Japan is one of the global leaders. JISC aims to standardize the basic requirements for information platforms that promote more efficient plant or factory operations from the procurement of components through to the manufacturing process.

[ Care of the Elderly ]

As Japan faces the challenges associated with aging societies and falling birth rates earlier than other nations, JISC aims to take a leadership role in developing standards of social infrastructure for elder care. For example, driven by a proposal made by JISC, an international standard on safety for personal care robots (ISO 13482) was published in 2014. Additionally, in 2016, JISC established new standards in Japan that clarify specific safety requirements by robot type to ensure caregivers' safety. Moving forward, JISC plans to propose amendments to ISO 13482 to support the wider application of personal care robots around the world.

[ Electric Power Infrastructure ]

Global demand for electric power continues to grow. In developed countries, there is a great variation in how operators approach the management of assets for power networks, such as aging electrical equipment. Japan advocates for the establishment of international standards of the management of power network assets. Such standards are designed to help operators optimize the management of their assets and ensure the reliability of power networks. Based on the JISC's proposal, a new Technical Committee, IEC/TC 123 was established in October 2016.