Japan - Revision of the fertilizer standards and rules published

Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries  order to promote utilization of compost and fertilizers made of industrial by-products, the MAFF will amend the Ordinance for the Enforcement of the Fertilizer Regulation Act and the administrative rules as follows:

1. Designation of the "designated mixed fertilizers", as an additional category, which may be produced in and imported to Japan only requiring notification to the MAFF or to one of the Japanese prefectural governments.

(1) Fertilizers which fall into the following categories I to III are considered as "designated mixed fertilizers" as far as their mixing processes (including granulation: same as in hereafter) do not have possibility to deteriorate the quality (e.g. chemical changes).

I   mixed fertilizers produced only from registered normal fertilizers¹

II mixed fertilizers produced from registered normal fertilizers and registered special fertilizers²

III mixed fertilizers produced from registered normal fertilizers and/or special fertilizers and soil amendments

Followings are examples of fertilizers which are not considered as the "designated mixed fertilizers".

1. mixed fertilizers produced from compost (or sewage sludge) which contains 50% or more water
2. fertilizers produced from the  (A) and (B) bellow (unless their mixing processes deteriorate the quality)

(A) alkaline fertilizers

(B) non-alkaline fertilizers or sulfur

^1,2  The "normal fertilizers" and "special fertilizers" are defined in the Fertilizer Regulation Act. The Act is available from the following link:

(2) The soil amendments listed below may be used for producing the "designated mixed fertilizers" specified in III of 1.(1):

peat, humic acid, woody peat, granulated calcined diatomaceous earth, zeolite, vermiculite, perlite, bentonite and vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhiza

(3) Mixed "special fertilizers" are defined as below:

"Mixed fertilizers produced exclusively from special fertilizers" is additionally designated as special fertilizers. The mixed special fertilizers may be produced in and imported to Japan under the same notification procedure as "special fertilizer".

Similar labelling requirements to those for compost is stipulated for the mixed special fertilizers. The labelling requirements include the name of main raw materials, amount of ingredient, production date, the name of producers among others.

(4) The assurance label for "designated mixed fertilizer" is required to indicate the following information:

• description which proves that the label is  "producer assurance label" or "importer assurance label";
• name of the fertilizers
• guaranteed component amount (or the amount of the major components for the fertilizer corresponding to 1.(1) II and III)
• name and address of the producer or importer;
• year and month of production or import;
• (in the case of producer) name and location of the workplace for the production;
• net weight;
• (in the case of designated mixed fertilizer) discription that the fertilizer is a designated mixed fertilizer;
• (in the case of designated mixed fertilizer which contains special fertilizer(s))  type/name and proportion of normal fertilizer(s) and/or special fertilizer(s)
• (in the case of designated mixed fertilizer which contains soil amendment(s))  type/name and proportion of normal fertilizer(s), special fertilizer(s) and soil amendment(s)
• type/name of the raw materials

2. Relaxation of the requirements for the assurance labelling

(1) Minimum amount of the major components which is required to be indicated on the assurance label is lowered.

The required minimum amount for alkalinity (AL) and Acid-silicon (SiO₂) is lowered to 5% or more of the product weight (currently 10% or more).

(2) Regarding the assurance labels, the current requirement of size (bigger than 10.8cm long and 7.2cm wide) is abandoned while the font size requirement is introduced so that it should not be smaller than 8 point (Japanese Industrial Standards Z8305).

3. Amendment of the labelling requirements for mixed organic fertilizers

Mixed organic fertilizers are, similarly to other mixed fertilizers, required to indicate all the raw materials that contain nitrogen on their labels.

Although in the current regulation, it is required to indicate all the raw materials in descending order according to the percentage weight in the product, the following description will be also allowed after the amendment:

I Five or more raw materials, or raw materials consisting eighty percent or more of the fertilizers should be listed first in descending order of weight ratio, followed by "others" in which the remaining raw materials shall be listed with parenthesis ("no particular order" required in the parenthesis).

II If the actual order of the two adjacent raw materials may be changed depending on the lots, the possibility of the change may be described. However, the "others" should always stay at the end of the list.

Products covered :Fertilizer

HS Code:3101, 3102, 3103, 3104, 3105

Proposed date of adoption:To be determined

Proposed date of entry into force:December 2020

Final date for comments:30 days from notification

If the Proposal/Notification/Regulation will affect your International Business please send us your representation with facts and figures , so that these can be taken up suitably.