May 2011

The Japan Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Industry Association

Vol.11-02

１. JRAIA Testing laboratory was reborn as a third-party institute in February 2011. The testing laboratory
was established within JRAIA in April, 1978 in Atsugi City, Kanagawa Prefecture, as a result of a voluntary
effort by our industry to protect consumers and promote a fair competition between companies. In 1994 thelaboratory was certified to ISO17025 (Laboratory accreditation) for the first time in Japan, and in 2010 it
constructed new facilities for PAC and GHP with cooling capacity up to 56kW. Since the establishment, ithas long been playing an important role in developing the technology for performance tests of airconditioning equipment.
These days, however, in an effort to prevent global warming worldwide, public awareness of using
eco-friendly products or performance measurement is sharply rising. For refrigeration and air conditioning
equipment which uses a large amount of energy, it is becoming increasingly important to meet the demandfor high efficiency and more accurate performance measurement. For these reasons, we thought it beneficial
to the entire society to develop the testing laboratory
into a new organization which conducts a fair,transparent and accurate evaluation of performancewith expert knowledge and special facilities not onlyfor makers but also for other business companies orindividuals and which also aims to become aninternational certification laboratory in near future.
To deal with this situation, we made a decision toseparate the testing laboratory from JRAIA. InFebruary, 2011 the laboratory was reborn as athird-party institute called Japan Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Testing Laboratory (JATL) aimed atoffering reliable products to the marketplace and contributing to the development of the Japanese industries
On April 1st, 2011, JATL kicked off its business into gear with plans to introduce test facilities for heatpump water heaters and to tackle support-projects for developing countries of Asia. Furthermore, JATL
hopes to take an active role as a global institute by enhancing the relationships and exchanges with testinglaboratories abroad.
２. Amid growing need for international cooperation on environmental issues, we set up the JRAIA Office forAffiliates of Members in the EU (JROAME) in 2008, in Brussels, Belgium to promptly gather information onEU environmental regulations and to cope with them timely. JROAME is strongly supported by relevant
committees in JRAIA and cooperates closely with EPEE. It is now actively playing an important role for ourindustry. Also, JRAIA newly established the International Affairs Department this April to strengthen ourinternational activities. We would like to ask for your continuous support and cooperation for our newdepartment.
1３. On March 11, a tremendous earthquake recorded a magnitude of 9.0 and the subsequent massive
tsunami struck the northeast coast of Japan. Damage especially caused by the tsunami is enormous, andaround 15,000 people perished and more than 10,000 are still missing.
In our industry, air conditioning manufacturers did not suffer direct damage from the disaster as theirfactories are located away from the hard-hit area. However part suppliers there suffered serious damage
and therefore air conditioning manufacturers are facing shortage of key components such as
microcomputers used in their inverter controllers.
Not only the production of air conditioning equipment, but also a number of installed refrigeration and air
conditioning equipment suffered extensive damage from the disaster.
As social responsible parties, JRAIA and JARAC, Japan Association of Refrigeration and Air Conditioning
Contractors, announced that the two associations jointly provide maximal assistance for prompt recovery ofthe damaged area.
To be more precise, they will be providing the following assistance in close collaboration with related
administrative bodies and associations ;① Check whether damaged equipment is safely workable or not.
② Maintain the workable equipment and recover the function.
③ Recover refrigerant from unworkable equipment for quick dismantlement according to Law concerning
the Recovery and Destruction of Fluorocarbons.
４. JRAIA was invited as a speaker to the seminar on Multi-type Air Conditioners, Testing and Calculationof Seasonal Performance held in Shanghai on April 8, by China National Standards Committee ofRefrigeration & Air-Conditioning Equipment. An expert, representing JRAIA, made a presentation about
Japanese standard for APF, Annual Performance Factor.
５. JRAIA has published ‘ 2010 Estimates of World Demand for Air Conditioners ’. We estimated the total
global air conditioner market (RAC and PAC) at 82,770 thousand units, a year-on-year increase of 15%.
For more information, please access JRAIA’s website, http://www.jraia.or.jp.

Office: Kikai Shinko Bldg. 201. 3-5-8, Shibakoen, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-0011, Japan
URL: http://www.jraia.or.jp

Contact: tajima@jraia.or.jp:kao224@jraia.or.jp

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