Need for Occupational Hygienists expected to highten in Japan
Japan Association for Working Environment Measurement (JAWE)

In Japan, the practice of occupational safety and health has been guided bylaws and regulations accompanied by comprehensive administrative directives
from the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare.
Since those rules define in great detail,it seems the priority for employers is not
to come up with their own way but to only comply with those regulatory
requirements. This perhaps partly accounts for rather low need from employers
for external health and safety experts including occupational hygienists inJapan.
Recent amendments,however,to the regulation on hazardous chemicals maychange the situation and to an extent enhance the need for ccupational
hygienists.
The Japanese government has regulated hazardous chemicals based on
available toxicological data and occupational hygiene surveys in Japan. Afterabout two years of the review process, the government,with the aim ofexpediting the process of regulating hazardous chemicals based on Global
Harmonization System (GHS) hazard classifications, recently announced thefundamental change in the role of government and employers in hazardous
chemicals regulation.
Under the new regulatory system, it is a role of government to provide
employers with information on about 2,900 hazardous chmemicals in the formof Safety Data Sheets(SDS). On the other hand,the new system requires
employers to maintain SDSs for the chemicals and implement risk assessmentand exposure control measures to reduce potential health risk of their workers
at a safe level. Under the present system,the government clearly indicates,byeither regulations or administrative derectives, the measures employers shouldtake for respective chemicals.
The new plicy,however,obligates employers to work out proper measures on
their own.
Since OSH management especially in small scale enterprises that account for
majority of Japanese firms in number,is far from autonomous one due to scarce

1Ⓒ Japan Association for Working Environment Measurement

in-house OSH resources,this new regulation must be quite a challenge.
Under these circumstances, outocome of new regislation would depend how thegovernment can successfully lead them into autonomous OSH management.
The new regulation will take effect this year.
For about 800 hazardous chemicals, the employers are required to ensure theworkers’exposure below their respective Occupational Exposure Limits (OELs).
For the other group of about 2100 chemicals, employers have to keep
workers’exposure as low as reasonably achievable with autonomous exposure
control measures. In Japan about 120 high-hazard chemicals are covered by 4
respective regulations. After the enactment of new regulation, the number will
increase as many as about 2900 in a few years.
The new regulatory system is summarized in the image below.
報告書の根幹Overallpicture of the new regulatory system

Employersʼ duty

What government does

Hazardiuschemicals（abt2,900）

GHS
Classiﬁ-cation

800
WithOEL

Prepa
rationofSDSs

2100
WithoutOEL

performRA

Takingmeasuresbyemployers
choicebased onRA

Keepworkerexposure
notexceed
OEL

Keep worker
exposure as
low aspossible10

To address the need for qualified occupational hygienists, since 2008, JAWE
has established a scheme of Certified Occupational Hygienist (COH) which
includes completion of 93-hour course curriculum on occupational hygiene incompliance with the IOHA-NAR guidelines. As illustrated in the chart below,
the number of COHs has increased significantly in the last two years,probably

2Ⓒ Japan Association for Working Environment Measurement

reflecting the new regulation.

participants for JAWE COH course
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
50
2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

2023

JAWE expects increased demand for JAWE-COHs from employers who intend
to sincerely face the new legal requirement so that they can help employers
much in their autonomous management to reduce occupational health risk fromworkplaces.

3Ⓒ Japan Association for Working Environment Measurement