On November 28, 2023, Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and Ministry of Environment jointly announced that the cabinet has approved the partial amendment to the Chemical Substance Control Law (CSCL).

On November 28, 2023, Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry announced that the cabinet has approved the partial amendment to the Act on Preventing Environmental Pollution of Mercury. It aims to respond to the Fourth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Minamata Convention on Mercury, where new regulations for specified mercury-containing products were established. Act on Preventing Environmental Pollution of Mercury mainly aims to regulate the mining of mercury and the manufacturing of mercury-containing products to prevent environmental pollution.

On November 8, 2023, the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and the Ministry of the Environment jointly published the public consultation results for its revision to the Chemical Substance Control Law (CSCL), which started on September 15. The consultation drew extensive attention and various suggestions were submitted.

On September 8, 2023, Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW), the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), and the Ministry of the Environment (MOE) jointly published a notice on the declaration schedule for the manufacturing and import of new chemical substances in 2024, bringing important information to industries in the chemical sector. In accordance with laws on chemical substance review and manufacturing, enterprises must make a declaration according to the regulations before manufacturing or importing new chemical substances to obtain relevant determination notice, so as to undergo review on the properties of the chemical substance.

On August 10, 2023, the Manufacturing Industries Bureau of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry officially published an announcement concerning three substances newly listed as prohibited substances at the eleventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention (SC COP-11), as the Class I Specified Chemical Substances in the Chemical Substances Control Law.

On June 29, 2023, the National Institute of Technology and Evaluation (NITE) in Japan published recommended GHS classifications for 170 chemical substances. This is in accordance with JIS Z 7252: 2019 (Classification of chemicals based on the United Nations' Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS)).

Recently, Japan has detected sodium aluminate dioxide (CAS No.: 1302-42-7) in some imported products containing sodium aluminate (CAS number: 11138-49-1). In accordance with the announcement of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW), sodium aluminate dioxide was classified as deleterious substance under the Poisonous and Deleterious Substances Control Law (PDSCL) on July 1, 2018.

On May 31, 2023, the MHLW released 20230531 The draft of Table 1 and 20230531 The draft of Table 2 as the positive lists of base materials and additives. The draft positive lists include Table 1 and Table 2.

On July 15, 2022, three Japanese ministries held an online conference during which they announced they had completed revisions to the methods for screening and risk assessment of priority assessment chemical substances (PACs) under the chemical substance control law (CSCL). The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW), Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), and Ministry of Environment (MoE) are expected to publish the revised technical guidelines and relevant documents in September. In the first session, they talked about the risk assessment methods for PACs as well as the revision to screening assessment method; in the second session, they discussed and deliberated of new chemical substances.

On June 3, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan identified four substances that pose a risk of respiratory issues or skin absorption to workers on exposure. The Ministry recommends that companies that produce or process these substances should take precautionary measures under the Industrial Safety and Health Act (ISHA), including alleviating or preventing workers’ exposure to these substances by improving ventilation conditions, as well as providing personal protective equipment (PPE).