In Japan, selling an electrical product without PSE certification is not a regulatory grey area. It is a criminal offense. Under the Electrical Appliances and Materials Safety Act, Article 57 lists the acts that trigger liability. An individual who commits one of them faces up to one year of imprisonment, a fine of up to ¥1 million, or both.
Where the act falls under Article 57 item 2 or item 6, Article 59 additionally exposes the employing company to a fine of up to ¥100 million. That ¥100 million ceiling applies to those enumerated categories, not to every violation of the Act (e-Gov, 電気用品安全法 Articles 57 and 59).
Most importers and brand managers learn about PSE certification as a checklist item. What the data reveals is that even established Japanese companies with decades of market presence get it wrong. The consequences are visible, public, and permanent.
What PSE Certification Actually Requires
PSE refers to the Electrical Appliance and Material Safety Act (電気用品安全法, DENAN) and the safety mark it requires. It is Japan’s mandatory certification framework for electrical products, administered by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI).
Most electrical products sold in Japan, online or offline, imported or domestically produced, must carry the PSE mark. There are two mark types. A round mark (丸PSE, often called the circle mark) covers 特定電気用品以外の電気用品, the lower-risk group, where the notified business confirms conformity itself.
A diamond mark (菱形PSE) covers 特定電気用品, the higher-risk group, which must pass a conformity inspection at a registered inspection body under Article 9 of the Act. METI’s own test reports list DC power supply units, transformers for household appliances and electric water heaters in this group (METI, 試買テスト・流通後規制, FY2021 report, PDF).
Without the correct PSE mark, products cannot legally be placed on the market. Any business that makes, imports or sells covered electrical appliances, including one that sells online, may not sell them or display them for sale without the mark (Article 27). Where a product sold on an online marketplace poses a risk and the seller cannot be identified, found or relied on to act, METI can ask the marketplace to suspend the listing (Article 42-7).
The Compliance Numbers Are Stark
METI buys electrical products off the market each year and tests them against the Act, the 試買テスト (METI, 試買テスト・流通後規制). In FY2021 it tested 176 models across 60 product categories, and 89 models (50.6%) failed the technical standards (METI, 令和3年度電気用品安全法試買テスト結果の概要, September 2023, PDF). In FY2022 it tested 163 models across 59 categories, and 81 models (49.7%) failed (METI, 令和4年度 report, August 2024, PDF).
That roughly-half figure needs its limits stated. The sample is not random: METI’s FY2022 report says it buys mainly products strongly suspected of failing the technical standards, or products with a high accident count. So the split describes a risk-targeted basket rather than the Japanese market as a whole (FY2022 report, PDF).
Imported models also dominate that basket: 155 of the 176 models in FY2021 and 142 of the 163 in FY2022. What the recall record does show is that failures are not confined to unknown importers: long-established domestic brands appear in it too.
Three Real Cases from 2022
The following three cases are drawn from public METI and NITE records. All involve recognizable brands: two of them major Japanese companies with generations of brand equity in their home market.
Tiger Corporation (タイガー魔法瓶) — 2022
Tiger Corporation, one of Japan’s most recognized kitchen appliance brands, began a voluntary recall and exchange on 15 April 2022 covering electric water heaters/pots and rice cookers. METI’s notice gives the reason as a discrepancy in the material of the power-cord plug, with units not conforming to the technical standards having been mixed into production.
The affected items use a magnet-detachable power cord. The notice puts the manufacturing period at 21 March 2020 to 20 February 2022 and the affected volume at approximately 1,333,000 units (METI recall notice, 15 April 2022). Tiger Corporation’s name is published on the METI website.
The nature of the defect is what makes the case useful. This was not a counterfeit or a low-quality import, but a sourcing change in one component of a domestic brand’s own product line.
Haier Japan (ハイアールアジア) — 2022
Haier Japan Sales (ハイアールジャパンセールス) recalled 52,092 units of the JJ-M55D rice cooker on 11 October 2022, covering product sold between November 2018 and April 2022. METI’s notice gives the reason as a serious product accident in which the product burned, together with the possibility of further accidents of the same kind (METI recall notice, 11 October 2022).
The case illustrates why PSE is not a one-time certification. Components used in a product must themselves meet the technical standards, and a change in component sourcing or specification can put a model back into scope for conformity work.
Zojirushi (象印マホービン) — 2022
Zojirushi, another well-established Japanese kitchenware manufacturer, recalled 7,056 units of the EX-AJ30 electric hotplate on 17 November 2022. METI’s notice gives the reason as the possibility that, after long-term use, a small current flows through the heater and the heat shield. The remedy recorded is collection and refund (METI recall notice, 17 November 2022).
The Zojirushi case is particularly instructive because the issue was identified through long-term use testing. Products that pass initial compliance checks can still develop characteristics over time that bring them out of compliance.
What Happens When Non-Compliance Is Found
METI has two main enforcement tools. First, the agency can publish the names of non-compliant companies and their products on its official website (Article 42-8). This public naming persists. A company’s history of PSE violations is accessible to any buyer, distributor, or retail platform conducting due diligence.
Second, METI can order a notified business to improve how it manufactures, imports or inspects its products (Article 11), bar it from affixing the PSE mark to a product type for up to one year (Article 12), and, where there is a risk of harm, order a recall (Article 42-5). Selling without the mark, or disobeying a recall order, is a criminal offense (Article 57).
For foreign brands there is one more thing to settle: who the notified business (届出事業者) is. Under Article 3 of the Act, the business that manufactures or imports an electrical appliance must file a notification with METI, and under Article 8 that same business is responsible for the product’s conformity and must keep inspection records. A Japan-based importer files in its own name. Since 25 December 2025, a business outside Japan that sells directly to consumers in Japan, with no domestic importer in between, must file the notification itself and name a domestic administrator in Japan (METI). An agent can prepare the paperwork, but the obligations stay with the notified business, and the orders described above are addressed to it.
High-Frequency Violation Categories
METI’s surveillance data consistently identifies certain product categories with elevated non-compliance rates:
- Chargers and mobile power banks (consistently the highest-frequency category)
- LED lighting products
- AC adapters and power supplies
- Rice cookers and small domestic appliances
These categories cover a significant portion of the consumer electronics products most commonly considered for Japan market entry by Chinese and Southeast Asian manufacturers.
The Practical Implication
The Tiger and Zojirushi cases make one point clearly: PSE compliance is an ongoing operational responsibility, not a box checked during initial product registration. Domestic brands with long market histories still face recalls when manufacturing processes change or long-term performance characteristics emerge.
For foreign brands entering Japan, this means PSE certification requires not just initial compliance documentation but processes for ongoing monitoring and component change management, and a notified business that keeps its inspection records up to date.
The question is not whether PSE compliance is necessary. It is whether the process is properly structured before products reach the market — not discovered after METI’s annual surveillance does.
About Terra Vista
Terra Vista Co., Ltd., headquartered in Japan, provides market entry support for brands and manufacturers seeking to enter the Japanese market. This includes mapping the PSE route for a product, acting as importer of record, and distributor matching. Full PSE application process documentation available at terravista.co.jp/pse-certification-japan/
Contact: info@terravista.co.jp
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Is PSE certification mandatory for all electrical products sold in Japan?
A: Not all of them. Japan’s Electrical Appliance and Material Safety Act (DENAN) requires most electrical products sold in Japan — online or offline, imported or domestically made — to carry the PSE mark. There are two types: a circle mark for self-certified lower-risk products, and a diamond mark for higher-risk products requiring third-party inspection. Selling without the correct mark is a criminal offense.
Q: What are the penalties for PSE non-compliance in Japan?
A: An individual who sells or displays for sale an appliance without the PSE mark, breaches a METI ban on affixing the mark, or disobeys a recall order faces up to one year of imprisonment, a fine of up to 1 million yen, or both (Article 57). For the last two offenses, the company can also be fined up to 100 million yen (Article 59). Beyond these penalties, METI can publicly name non-compliant companies on its official website — reputational damage that persists and affects distributor and retail relationships.
Q: What product categories have the highest PSE non-compliance rates in Japan?
A: Based on METI annual market surveillance data (FY2021-2022), the highest-frequency violation categories are: (1) chargers and mobile power banks, (2) LED lighting products, (3) AC adapters and power supplies, and (4) rice cookers and small domestic appliances. METI recorded technical-standard failure rates of 50.6% (FY2021) and 49.7% (FY2022) among the models it bought and tested; that purchase is risk-targeted rather than random, so it is not a market-wide rate.
Q: Do Japanese companies also fail PSE compliance?
A: Yes. In 2022, Tiger Corporation recalled electric kettles and rice cookers for PSE non-compliance, Zojirushi recalled 7,056 electric griddles, and Haier Japan recalled 52,092 rice cookers. All cases are publicly documented on METI and NITE records. PSE compliance is an ongoing operational requirement, not a one-time certification.
Related: PSE certification in Japan; PSE certification cost in Japan; PSE rules for small appliances; Three-gate check for Japan.
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